State of Environment Report - Tripura 2002

Transcription

2002
State of Environment Report
Tripura State Pollution Control Board
Vigyan Bhawan, Pandit Nehru Complex,
Gorkhabasti, P.O. Kunjaban, Agartala,
Tripura - 799006
State of Environment Report 2002
State of Environment Report: Tripura 2002
INDEX
Serial No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Chapter Name
Introduction
Land Use
Geomorphology, Geology & Mineral Resource
Climate
Surface Water Resources and Drainage System
Ground Water
Forest
Bio-Diversity
Agriculture
Energy
Transport
Tourism
People
Health
Habitat
Environment Quality
Waste Management
Current Efforts
Recommendations
Page No
1
2-11
12-15
16-18
19-21
22-24
25-35
36-46
47-57
58-62
63-64
65-67
68-76
77-80
81-83
84-93
94-106
107-108
109-114
0
Chapter
1
Introduction
The State of Environment (SoE) of a State refers to the prevailing conditions from two
perspectives –bio physical conditions and socio-economic conditions. State of Environment
Report provides a general picture of the State of the bio physical and the socio-economic
conditions and understanding on how human activities affect the environmental conditions
and its implications on human health and economic well –being. It also provides an outcome of
the responses such as policy initiatives, legislative reforms and changes in public behaviour.
Thus the report may act as a report card on the conditions of the environment and natural
resources stocks.
The purpose of the study is to document changes and trends in environmental conditions.
Regular State of Environment reporting ensures the public, industry, NGOs and all level of
Government Agencies access to up-to-date and scientifically accurate information about the
environment. It provides basic references to enable to integrate it into sound policies to sustain
ecological processes and improve quality of life now and in future.
Issues related to SoE








Regularly provide the public, government, NGO, and decision makers with accurate,
timely and accessible information on the condition of, and future prospects for , an
nation’s environment;
Facilitate the development of and review and report on an agreed set of state
environmental indicators and indices;
Provide early warning of potential problems, as well as allowing for the evaluation of
possible scenarios for the future;
Report on the effectiveness of policies and programs that are designed to respond to
environmental change including progress towards achieving environmental standards
and targets;
Contribute to the assessment of a state’s progress towards achieving ecological
sustainability;
Create a mechanism for the integration of environmental, social and economic
information with the goal of providing a clear picture of the state;
Identify gaps in the state’s knowledge of environmental conditions and trends, and
recommend strategies for research and monitoring to fill these gaps;
Help decision-makers make informed judgment regarding the broad environmental
consequences of social, economic, and environmental policies and plans as well as in
meeting the nation’s international environmental reporting obligations.
Objectives
The three basic objectives of State of Environment Report are:



a) Provide foundation for improved decision making at all levels;
b) Increase awareness and understanding of environmental trends and conditions;
c) Facilitate the measurement of progress towards sustainability.
1
Chapter
2
Land Use
1.0 Land and Land use
The State of Tripura with 1.05 million hectare of land area (10,491.6 sq. km) has nearly 58% of
total under forest area (0.61 mha), followed by agriculture (0.28 mha). Of the total land
resource biomass producing area has been calculated at 0.92 mha, the remaining 0.13 mha
being demarcated as non-biomass producing land. The resources therefore show a significant
87.62% as productive biomass generating area. Of the 0.92 mha, forest land or common land
occupy 0.61 mha and private land occupies 0.31 mha (Table-1 & Fig. 1).
The land resources apart, the present land use profile of the State shows that forest with 0.61
mha and net area sown is 0.28 mha; the area not available for cultivation is put at 0.13 mha
(non agricultural uses). Land under miscellaneous tree crop is estimated at 0.027 mha,
cultivable wasteland at 0.001 mha and fallow land at 0.005 mha, including old fallow and
current fallow (Table-2 & Fig.2).
Table-1 : Land use pattern in Tripura
Sl.No. Land Use Pattern
Area (mha)
1.
Geographical area
1.05
2.
Land utilisation
1.05
3.
Biomass producing area
0.92
4.
Non-Biomass producing area
0.13
5.
Biomass producing common land/Forest area
0.61
6.
Biomass producing Private land
0.31
7.
Percentage of Biomass producing common land
58.09%
8.
Percentage of Biomass producing land
87.62%
[Source: Land use Statistics for 1994-96, Ministry of Agriculture, 1998]
2
Table – 2 : Land use (mha)
Sl.No.
Land use pattern
Area
1
Total land
1.05
2
Forest area
0.61
3
Agricultural area
0.28
4
Other
0.13
5
Miscellaneous crop
0.027
6
Cultivable wasteland
0.001
7
Fallow land
Old
0.001
Current
0.004
Total
0.005
[Source: Source: Land use Statistics for 1994-96, Ministry of Agriculture, 1998]
1.1
Soil
The soil types of Tripura can be classified under five major groups, of which Red loam and
sandy loam soil occupies 43.07 percent of the total area followed by Reddish yellow brown
sandy soils (33.06%), the other three groups occupy less than 10 percent each (Table-3 & Fig3).
3
Table-3 : Soil of Tripura
Sl. No. Soil Group
Area
Soil taxonomic unit
Sq. km Percent
1.
Reddish yellow brown sandy soils
3,468
33.06
(a)Ultic
Hapludalfs
(b)Udic
Ustochrepts
(c)Typic Udorthents
2.
Red loam and sandy loam soils
4,514
43.07
(a)Ultic
HaplustaIfs
(b)Typic/Ultic
Hapludalfs
(c)Typic
PaleudaIfs
(d)Typic
Ustochrepts
(e)Typic
Drystochrepts
(f)Udic
Ustochrepts
(g)Typic U.stochrepts
3.
Older alluvial soils
1,019
9.71
(a)Typic
OchraquaJfs
(b)Typic Haplaquepts
4.
Younger alluvial soils
980
9.34
a)Typic Udifluvents
5.
Lateritic soils
510
4.86
(a)Typic
Palehumults
(b)Typic
Plinthustults
(c)Typic
Plinthudults
(d)Typic Paleudults
10,491
100.00
[Source : Based on LANDSAT imagery data (1986) and the Atlas of Agricultural Resources of India (Das Gupta 1980).]
The annual average rainfall being fairly high (2000-3000 millimeters), the process of chemical
weathering and rapid erosion of the soils and bed rocks appear significant.
The occurrence of different soil groups can be correlated with topographical variations, land
slope, climate, vegetation cover and present rock material. Dutta et.al. (1982) provided a
detailed document of Soil of North Eastern Region including Tripura and showed the
4
association of variable taxonomic units under each of the soil group, ranging between one to
seven (Table-4).
1.2
Reddish Yellow Brown sandy Soil
This soil type covers nearly one third of the total geographical area of the State, mostly
distributed along north south axis. Poor in nutrient, the sandy soil due to leaching under
heavy rainfall, the soil type shows a resilience process through utilization of ground biomass of
leaf litters. Tropical evergreen forest of Tripura largely grow in sandy soil but clear felling of
trees in the hill forest can cause serious erosion problem to these soil resources.
The reddish yellow brown sandy soil consist of seven soil series.
Table-4 : Reddish Yellow Brown Sandy soil
Sl.No. Series
Characteristics
1.
Chhnraipara
Series
Deep dark grayish brown, in steep hill slope, often eroded, affected
by Jhum
2.
Ramdurgabari
Series
Sandy loam to loam, in hill slopes, variably eroded, affected by
Jhum
3.
Belbari Series
Moderately drained in hill slope, sandy loam to clay loam support
thin forest.
4.
Radhamani Series Very deep, in very steep hill slope, sandy loam to loam, severely
eroded,thin vegetation cover.
5.
DhumacharaSeries Darkbrown, deep, well drained, in steep slope, sandy clay loam,
support shrubs and grasses.
6.
Naraifung Series
Deep dark brown, moderately well drained, in moderate to steep
slope,sandy loam, subsoil ferruginous, under dense forest.
7.
Sankoma Series
Light textured, dark grayish brown to dark brown, moderately
drained, in strongly sloping or steep slopes; subsoil clay loam;
moderately to severely erosion prone, covered by thin vegetation.
[Source: Digar et.al. 1982]
1.3
Red Loam and sandy Loam
About 43-45 percent of total geographical area of Tripura is covered by the red loam and sandy
loam soils. Such soil is normally associated with forest ecosystem and is rich in nutrient. In
heavy rain fall area, such soil is prone to heavy erosion, specially in slope areas. Due to
possible impact of deep ploughing, arable farming in red loam and sandy loam soil is not
recommended specially without strict regime of soil conservation. Long cycle of Jhum
cultivation is a better way of crop production in such soil zone. It is recommended also for
plantation crop with adequate scope for ground cover, specially, rubber, tea, coffee and
pineapple. In case of conversion of forest in such soil zone, adequate soil conservation measure
is recommended. At least 14 different soil series have been identified by National Bureau of Soil
Survey and Land Use Planning in red loam and sandy loam soil of Tripura. (Table-5)
5
Table-5 : Red Loam and Sandy Loam Soil
Sl.
No.
Series
Characteristics
1.
Tuikarma Series
Dark to dark brown, deep, moderately well drained, in steep slope,
with clay loam sub-soil, eroded, under thin forest cover.
2.
Chandrajaipara
Series
Fine loamy soil, dark grayish brown, very deep, well drained, with
clay loam sub-soil severely eroded, under forest.
3.
Hazapara Series
Coarse loamy soil, dark grayish brown, eroded, well drained, under
forest.
4.
Ainarayanpur
Series
Fine loamy soil, dark brown, in steep slopes, very deep, with clay
loam sub-soil severely eroded.
5.
Khowai Series
Fine loamy, dark grayish brown, deep well drained, sandy clay
subsoil, under shrubs and grasses.
6.
Monguabari Series Fine loamy, dark grayish brown, in moderate slope, with clay subsoil,
under shrubs and grasses.
7.
Jhukharaipara
Series
Fine loamy, dark grey, very deep, well drained, with clay loamy
subsoil, under erosion.
8.
Kathalbagan
Series
Fine loamy, dark grayish brown, moderately well drained, in very
steep hill slope, under forest and Jhum.
9.
Mahamunipara
Series
Very dark grayish brown, very deep, in moderately steep to very steep
slope, erosion prone, under moderate forest cover
10.
Kathalia Series
Brown to dark brown on very steep slope, under the forest and
plantation crop and Jhum.
11.
Jagatramchara
Series
Very deep, very dark, on gentle to steep slope with clay loam to clay
subsoil, under plantation crop and Jhum.
12.
Ambagan Series
Moderately well drained, on moderate slope, subsoil clay loam, under
orchard.
13.
Paglachara Series
Very deep, dark yellow brown on steep to very steep middle hill
slopes, under moderately dense forest and Jhum.
14.
Gongrai Series
Very deep, dark brown, well drained erosion prone, under forest and
Jhum.
[Source: NBSSLUP]
1.4
Older Alluvial Soil
About 10 percent of the State is covered by older alluvial soil. Normally located in river terraces
and high plains, the soil is rich in organic nutrient and suitable for arable farming. Much of
older soil however remains under tropical forest cover. Due to possibility of gully erosion in
uplands, slopes and river terraces, older alluvial soil need special soil conservation measures.
At least five distinct series are recognized under older alluvial soil (Table-6)
6
Table-6
: Older Alluvial Soil
Sl.No. Series
Characteristics
1.
Bakuri Series
In very gently sloping river valley, moderately well drained, covered by
grasses and shrubs.
2.
Tuikthang
Series
Fine loamy soil, dark grey, very deep, moderately drained on
developing valley land, usually under Paddy cultivation.
3.
Kalachara Series Fine loamy soil, ill drained, very deep, in leveled river valley, with silty
loam or clay loam subsoil, usually under paddy cultivation.
4.
Gangasardarbari Fine loamy soil, very deep, 7ecogni brown, well drained, on gently
Series
sloping land; subsoil heavy clay loam; partly eroded, covered by
bushes, occasionally by paddy cultivation.
5.
Lalpumbari
Series
Fine loamy soil, very deep, dark grey, moderately drained, on gently
sloping valley, slightly eroded, under bushes.
[Source: NBSSLUP]
1.5
Younger Alluvial Soil
About 9 percent of the State of Tripura is covered by younger alluvial soil, confined to the flood
plains of river (e.g. Khowai, Haora, Gumti and Muhari, etc.). This composed of clay loam and
loam and is extremely rich and fertile due to impact of annual flooding. While assured
cultivation of Jute and Paddy in such soil regime is known, the danger of erosion by lateral
cutting and bank collapse has to be kept under consideration to avoid wash-down to
Bangladesh plains from the State of Tripura. River training work was recommended in the
earlier “State of Environment Report in Tripura” (1989) in such soil zone.
1.6
Lateritic Soil
Along the western boundary, 7ecogni upland with lateritic soil can be 7ecognized.
Approximately 5 percent of the total land in Tripura can be classified under “lateritic soil”.
Coarse in texture and very poor in nutrients, this soil type can support scrubland and wild
bushes. No arable farming or agroforestry can be undertaken in this soil condition in view of
nutrient material being washed down from bedrock to lower horizon.
1.2
Soil and Optimizing Land Use
The National Bureau of Soil and land Use Planning published the results of detailed study on
the issue of optimizing land use based on soil features (1997) along with two maps. The finding
of NBSSLUP showed some vital features.
Four major land classes and seven subclasses could be identified in the state. About 19% of
the area belong to class-2 and form the main food grain producing area in the south and west.
Drainage is by and large the major limitations for irrigation. Both surface and subsurface
drainage is restricted due to (i) very high ground water table either due to depression or other
reservoirs, (ii) poor infiltration rate of soil due to high percentage of clay, silt or both. About
12% of land is grouped under class-3, which is composed of very narrow interhill valley; more
than 20% land belong to class-4 where topography is major limiting factor for appropriate use,
but can be made suitable for the tree crops, plantation crops, horticulture crops and spices.
7
The issues of soil erosion and soil under flooding also come under serious concern of
environmental conservation. In the State of Tripura, soil erosion factors have been grouped
under 8 class categories (Table-7 & Fig.,-4). The maximum area come under class 2-2 in the
middle level of erosion (26.2%), while insignificant erosion is noted in class 1-0 (19.0%) and
highest level of erosion in noted in class 4-3 (10.4%)
Table-7:
Soil Erosion in Tripura
Class
Area in ha.
Percentage
4-3
109730
10.4
3-4
39588
3.8
3-3
10804
1.0
3-2
169630
16.2
2-2
274360
26.2
2-1
206278
19.7
1-1
33986
3.2
1-0
199384
19.0
Water bodies
5047
0.5
Total
1048807
100.00
[Source : NBSSLUP, 1997]
Major causes for erosion are recorded as (i) erosion under water; 25% of Tripura fall under
severe to very severe erosion class classification due to removal of vegetation cover. Maximum
area falls under moderate erosion.Soil under different flooding condition also limit appropriate
use of this vital natural resource base. Fortunately nearly 80% of the area show nil to slight
erosion, while 20% of the area show moderate to severe erosion due to flooding of which 4.4%
or 45000.8 ha of land show most severe erosion (Table-8 & Fig.-5).
8
Table-8:
Soil under different flooding classes
Class
Area(„000 ha.)
Percentage
Severe
45.8
4.4
Moderate-Severe
41.8
4.0
Moderate
37.9
3.6
Moderate-Slight
72.9
7.0
Slight
11.3
1.1
Slight-Nil
1.5
0.1
Nil
732.6
69.8
Nil-Slight
100.0
9.5
Water-bodies
5.4
0.5
[Source: NBSSLUP, 1997]
With regard to soil degradation, four different class
categories were used
(slight/moderate/strong/extensive) but extensive degradation has never been noted. The
causes for degradation are attributed to water erosion, chemical deterioration, and physical
deterioration. Only 113,000 ha. of soil is put under stable terrain under natural condition.
Total soil area under “strong” degradation come to 508000 ha or little less than 50 percent of
the total geographical area of the state.
1.3 Physiochemical Characteristics and Nutritional Status of Soil
Land degradation in Tripura is mainly caused by shifting cultivation, large-scale deforestation,
and improper land use. An ICAR report shows a gradual decline in soil pH, organic carbon,
clay ratio, available NPK and exchangeable Ca and Mg in shifting cultivation site within a three
year cycle (M. Datta et.al. 1995). On the other hand, terraced agricultural land produced an
appreciable rise in available NPK but fall in exchangeable acidity and available Fe and Mn
contents. In the agro-forestry system, rhizosphere soil under the cover of some tree species
9
indicate rise in soil pH, organic carbon, water holding capacity, available NPK and
exchangeable Ca and Mg, but an inconsistent change in available Fe and Mn was noted.
Table -9 Show some physico-chemical properties and nutritional status of soil in different land
use system.
Table-9: Physico-chemical properties and nutritional status of soil
Site
pH O.Carbon
(%)
Max.
Water
holding N(kg/ha) P
capacity (kg/kg)
(kg/ha)
K
(kg/ha)
A.
Shifting Cultivation Site
Peripheral upland
4.5 0.87
0.35
241.4
2.0
87.6
Midland
4.5 0.69
0.36
239.2
1.7
101.4
Lowland
4.9 0.84
0.39
329.3
3.8
100.0
B.
Agricultural Land use Site
Peripheral table land 4.4 0.90
0.41
372.5
7.7
161.0
Terraced Midland
4.7 0.70
0.39
308.6
2.9
73.9
Terraced Lowland
4.2 0.87
0.39
337.4
4.5
111.0
C.
Horticultural Land use Site
Halfmoon
Lowland
Terraced 5.6 0.67
0.39
436.6
4.9
175.7
Halfmoon
Midland
Terraced 4.9 0.66
0.40
384.5
5.3
146.7
Halfmoon
Lowland
Terraced 5.7 0.69
0.42
411.8
4.8
133.0
[Modified from M. Datta el.al. 1995]
1.4 Soil Conservation
The State Soil Conservation Department linked with Horticulture Department have undertaken
two major programme - heads viz. “Watershed Development Project in Shifting Cultivation
Area”, “National Watershed Development project in Rain-fed area” since 9th Five Year Plan.
Under these two thrust areas (as per the information provided by the authorities), selected
area-based projects have been undertaken (Table-10).
Table-10: Soil Conservation Projects
A.
Watershed Development Project in Shifting Cultivation Area
No. of South(ha)
Proje
cts
North (ha)
Dhalai (ha)
West (ha)
Total (ha)
Target Achievem Targ Achievem Targ Achievem Targ Achievem Targ Achieve
ent
et
ent
et
ent
et
ent
et
ment
14
8478
4578
4176 2490
3457 1728
NA
NA
1611 8796
1
10
B.
National Watershed Development Project in Rainfed Area
No. of Projects
46
Total Area
Total Allocation
Target
Allocation
Target
Allocation
48936
23000
1800
957.08
It is apparent that the programmes have so far achieved nearly 50% of the targeted area since
1997-98 (for B) and 1998-99 (for A); as programmes are scheduled to be completed by March
31, 2002, the targeted coverage of soil conservation work would be hard to complete. More
strategic planning, timely release of fund and monitoring of field based work -progress will be
essential for conservation of soil resources of the State. It is noted that the Soil Conservation
Department has no programme on the affected Forest area, and as such soil conservation work
in the upper catchment area remains largely unattended. The State Forest Department has no
separate programme for soil conservation (normally Forest and Soil Conservation works are
linked up in other Indian states). A review of current soil conservation works and required
support to the cartographic system appears essential for protecting this vital resource base. In
order to build capacity, training in the use of Remote Sensing data, (also lacking in the present
set up) is strongly recommended during early phase of 10th Five Year Plan.
11
Chapter
3
GEOMORPHOLOGY, GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES
2.0
Geomorphology
Geomorphologically, the state of Tripura represents the western fringe of typical “ridge and
valley” province of the late Tertiary fold mountain belt, commonly known as Indo-Burman
ranges (Purbanchal range). The general elevation varies between 780 m in the north eastern
part to 15 m in the western part above mean sea level. Five prominent roughly north south
trending anticlinal strike ridges traverse the state from east to west; these are Jampui,
Sakhantlang, Longtarai, Athramura and Baramura. This strike ridges form the watershed of
the Meghna basin of Bangladesh fed by Khowai, Haora, Juri, Manu, Dhalai, Deo, Longai,
Muhuri, Feni and Gomoti rivers. Ten physiographic units have been identified by the Geological
Survey of India (1999) in the State of Tripura which are given below Table-11.
Table-11 : Physiographic unit of Tripura
i.
Steeping slopping and slightly dissected high relief structural hills and ridges exemplified
by areas like Kailashahar, Panisagar, Baramura,Teliamura, etc.
ii.
Moderately slopping with moderately dissected medium relief parallel ridges present in
north and north eastern part of Tripura.
iii.
Moderately slopping and highly dissected, low relief structural hills and ridges found in
the north-west and southern part of the state.
iv.
Moderately to gently slopping and moderately dissected flat topped denuded hill
occurring in western, central and southern part of Tripura.
v.
Low lying residual hill with valley represented by Gonda charra area of south eastern
part of Tripura.
vi.
Undulatory plain with low mounds and gently slopping valley situated mostly in the
western and southern part of Tripura.
vii.
Moderately to gently slopping inter-hill valley with upland mostly occurring on the
northern- eastern and southern part of the state.
viii.
Moderately to gently slopping inter-hill valleys with alluvial upland plains, represented by
Kumarghat-Chailengta area as alluvial deposit of river Manu.
ix.
Rolling upland common in some pockets of the west and north-western part of Tripura.
x.
Flood plain constitute important area rornled by rivers of Tripura. Studied area
Krishnakishore nagar and Jampuri fall under this group.
[Source: Mukherjee, Bhatacharrya and Srivastav, GSI, 1999]
2.1
Geology
The state of Tripura exhibit an wide array of sedimentary rocks characteristics of marinemixed-fluvia type origin ranging age from upper most Oligocene (38 million years from present
time) to Recent period. These sediments, according to GSI, have been laid down in the Surma
basin during Tertiary age (which lasted for 65 million years) in an wide range of environmental
conditions governed by local tectonic movement. Tectonically, the region now comprises a
series of sub-parallel arquate, elongated, doubly plunging folds arrange in north south
direction. These folds for anticlines separated by wide flat sinclines.
12
The group of sediments during different geological age are shown in Table-12 on lithostratigraphy.
Table-12 : Stratigraphy of Tripura
Age
Group
Holocene
Formation
Khowai
Ghilatoli
Teliamura
Kalyanpur Formation
Quaternary
Formation
Formation
Formation
Dupitila Dupitila Formation
Upper Pliocene to Pleistocene Tipam
Pliocene
Upper
Tipam
Lower Tipam Formation
Micocene- Lr. Pliocene
Bokabil
Upper
Bhuban
Middle
Bhuban
Lower Bhuban Formation (Not exposed in
Surma
Formation
Formation
Formation
Formation
Tripura)
Upper most Oligocene
Seismic surveys in the region reveal the presence of sub-surface flatus. The part of Surma
basin in Tripura Mizoram area lies in close proximity to the Shillong plateau in the north and
Aracan Yoma belt to the east. Tripura is therefore located in seismically active zone; because of
inherent character of sediments of these areas even the minor shock during earthquake may
cause devastating particularly landslides (Mukherjee et.al., GSI, 1999)
2.2
Mineral Resources
The mineral resources of any state provide an avenue for economic development but the
process of mining may have extensive impact on land, soil and water resources. The mining
projects have as a consequence become a part of development sector requiring environmental
clearance under Environmental Protection Act, 1986, EIA Notification 1994
In Tripura, the mineral resources are mainly glass sands, limestone, plastic clay and hard
rock; all of these material are being used to a variable degree. However, the single most
important resource in the state is oil and natural gas. ONGC or Oil and Natural Gas
Commission has initiated massive exploration programme in the State, details of which are
dealt later.
As for the other minerals, Table-13 provides an account of locations, deposit, current uses, etc.
Details of clay deposit in Tripura has been dealt in the State of Environment Report for Tripura
(1989). The impact of mining and quarrying of mineral resources in Tripura has so far been
insignificant.
13
Table- 13 : Mineral Resource of Tripura
Mineral
Location
Uses
Hard Rock Jampui
Longatari Hill
Limestone Sakhan
Manpui
(990,000 t. reserve)
Hills Road metals
&
Jampui
Range Not
suitable
area Cement
Suitable
for
inferior quality of
Lime
Puzzolana
mix.
Clay
All over the State generally in river bank deposit
Good
clay
deposit
in
West
and
South
region.
Total 1.73 million ton deposit in four zone out of six zones*
[*
Mohanpur-Bamutia-Kamalghat;Bisramganj-Bagma;
Champamura-Baldakhal-Jogendranagar;
Khowai-TeliamuraAmpi;
Shantirbazar-Udaipur;
Kumarghat
and
Baidyathakurpara- Anadanagar- Maheshkhola-Dukli-Sonamura
area]
Sanitary
ware
Stone
wares
Sewerage
pipes
Electric insulator
Refractory grade
Glass
Sand
Bishramganj
(160,000t) Many uses
Old
Agartala
(16,000t)
Jogendranagar
(3627t)
Sekerkota
(80,000t)
Dasharambari
(5330t)
Mohanpur
(97,875t)
Baidyathakurpara- Anadanagar Maheshkhola and Dukli (NA)
Total Reserve 3,62,832 tonnes
[Source: GSI Report 1982, 1999]
Of the total geographical area of Tripura, 76% can be marked as of “Tertiary” origin and 24%
belong to Quaternary period; none of these contain any major mineral resource. A GSI Report
of 1982 provide a list of Non-metallic and metallic mineral vis-a-vis their location or otherwise
in Tripura (Table-14) indicating the poor profile.
Table-14 : Mineral Resource potential in Tripura
Sl.No.
Mineral
A.
Non-metallic
Status
Lime stone
Commodity not located or absent
Dolomite
Coal
Clay
Refractories
Glass sand
Good reserve, low grade
Graphite
Fertilizer
14
B.
Gravel sand silt
Good reserve, low grade
Building stone
Metallic
Ferrous
Non-ferrous
Noble metals
[Source: GSI Report 1982]
The current production of natural gas in estimated at one million cubic meters per day. The
available figure for 1990-91 to 1997-98 shows a fast increasing rate of production from 70
million tonnes per year in 1990-91 to 2.7x in 8 years reaching 196 million tonnes in 1997-98.
15
Chapter
4
3.0
CLIMATE
Introduction
The State of Tripura experiences Humid Sub-tropical type of climate. The features of climate,
however, vary between its different parts of the State. There are only two Meteorological
Observatories at Agartala and Kailasahar in Tripura having the facility to record temperature
and other weather information. Some of the important features of regional variation of climate
with regard to temperature, rainfall, humidity and wind speed are described below.
3.1
Temperature
The normal temperature at Agratala and Kilasahar is 25.2°C and 25.0°C respectively. The
temperature shows a declining trend from west to east. The daily maximum temperature and
minimum mean temperatures are 30.70°C and 19.50°C respectively during summer months.
The cold weather starts from about the end of November when the temperature of both day and
night decreases steadily. January is the coldest month when mean daily minimum temperature
is only 8.9°C and maximum temperature is 25.2°C. Average temperature in different years is
given in Table-15.
Table- 15 : Average temperature in different years (in °C)
Year
Agratala
Kailasahar
Highest
Lowest
Highest
Lowest
1987
33.9
16.7
NA
NA
1988
33.4
16.3
NA
NA
1989
33.3
16.5
NA
NA
1990
34.1
16.1
NA
NA
1991
33.6
15.5
NA
NA
1992
33.2
16.0
NA
NA
1993
32.9
15.6
NA
NA
1994
33.4
15.9
NA
NA
1995
34.0
15.4
NA
NA
1996
34.2
14.8
NA
NA
1997
32.8
14.9
33.1
16.25
1998
32.1
16.7
33.3
17.5
1999
33.7
17.2
34.1
17.3
2000
NA
NA
NA
NA
[Source: Meteorological Centre, Guwahati]
16
3.2 Rainfall
A more sensitive element of climate is the variation in rainfall. It varies not only from place to
place or from year to year, but also between seasons. Variation of rainfall between the districts
over some years is shown in Table-16. Annual rainfall ranges from 1922 mm to 2855 mm. The
rainfall generally increases from south-west to north-east. There is a big gap in the rainfall
content in southern central part around Amarpur, which is surrounded by 1500 mm. isohytes.
The north-eastern part of the state around Dharamnagar gets maximum rainfall.
Most of the rain comes during the months April-June and July to September. This period is
generally referred to as the Kharif season this is the major agricultural season of the whole
State. The variation of Kharif rainfall between the districts as also shown in Table -17 & Fig.-6.
The Factors governing rainfall are the seasonal changes in the direction of wind and the
presence of cool upper air current over the given parts of the State. During the Kharif season,
large depressions develop over one or the other parts of the State.
Table-16 : Average rainfall in different years (in centimeter)
District
1987
1988
1989
1999
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
West Dist.
271.6
333.0
200.7
254.6
297.5
172.8
269.1
146.3
207.8
192.2
North Dist.
228.8
325.3
255.1
260.8
337.6
226.8
373.4
226.6
223.8
222.5
South Dist.
249.7
337.8
230.5
313.5
373.8
173.8
372.6
182.4
251.1
209.4
Dhalai Dist.
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
NA
323.7
285.5
Tripura
250.0
332.0
228.8
276.2
336.2
191.1
338.4
185.1
251.6
227.4
[Source: Directorate of Agriculture, Govt. of Tripura]
Table-17 : Quarterly average rainfall in different district in 1996 (in Centimeter)
District
January-March
April-June
July-September
October-Decembe
West District
11.4
88.2
69.6
23.0
North District
22.9
86.4
97.6
15.6
South District
11.1
92.2
77.9
28.2
Dhalai District
16.3
130.5
122.8
15.9
Tripura
15.4
99.3
92.0
20.7
[Source: Directorate of Agriculture, Govt., of Tripura]
17
3.3 Humidity
Humidity is generally high throughout the year. In the summer season the relative humidity is
between 50 percent to 74 percent whereas in the rainy season it is over 85 percent.
3.4 Wind Speed
The mean wind speed is 7.1 km per hour, with maximum of 13.1 km per hour in May and
minimum of 3 km per hour in December.
3.5 Climate and Agriculture
The relationship between rainfall, temperature and farming is suitable to grow paddy crops in
the plains, and bamboo trees and jhum cultivation on hills along with the scope for plantation
of rubber, coffee, cashewnut, coconut and other evergreen and deciduous plants on the hilly
and tilla land.
The state represents hypothermic soil temperature regime. On the basis of variation in rain fall,
potential and actual evapotranspiration and length of crop growing period and their
interrelationship, the state of Tripura has been divided into eight agroecological zones (Table18).
Table-18 : Agroecological Zones in Tripura
Climate
Physiography
Perhumid
Hyperthermic
North
eastern Red
& 150-199
hills/Purvachal
Lateritic
mm/m
>300
days
Humid Hyperthermic North
eastern Red
& 150-199
hills/Purvachal
Lateritic
mm/m
>300
days
eastern Red
& 150-199
hills/Purvachal
Lateritic
mm/m
>300
days
eastern Red&
hills/Purvachal
Lateritic
150199mm/m
>300days 60-80%
Humid Hyperthermic As above with
structural hills
150199mm/m
>300days
HumidHyperthermic
Northeastern
hills/Purvachal
Humid Hyperthermic Northeastern
hills/Purvachal
Humid Hyperthermic As
above
with
Soil Type
high Red&
Lateritic
AWC
LGP
Red
& 150-199
Lateritic
mm/m
>300
days
Red
& 250 mm/m
Lateritic
<300
days
high Red
& 250 mm/m
Moisture
80-100%
40-60%
<300
18
Chapter
5
4.0
structural hills
Lateritic
days
SURFACE WATER RESOURCES & DRAINAGE SYSTEM
River & River Basin
The State of Tripura is well endowed with surface water resources. As many as ten major rivers
is reported to generate an annual flow of 793 million cubic meter of water. All rivers are rainfed and ephemeral in nature. All major rivers originate from hill ranges and show a typical
drainage pattern called trelis, except a few instances of dendrite pattern. Table- 19 provides a
synopsis of the Rivers.
Table-19: Rivers of Tripura
Sl.No. Name
River
of
the Origin& Flow
1.
Longai
Jampui Hill Northerly flow 98 km long
2.
Juri
Jampui Hill Northerly flow through Dharmangar valley
3.
Deo
Jampui Hill Northerly flow through Kanchanpur valley, meets Manu
river 98 km long.
4.
Manu
Sakhan range Northerly flow via Kailasahar to Bangladesh 167 km long
5.
Dhalai
Longtharai range Northerly flow via Kamalpur to Bangladesh 117km
long
6.
Khowai
Longtharai range North-west flow and then northerly via Khowai town
to Bangladesh 70km long
7.
Haroa
Baramura range Westward flow via Agartala to Bangladesh 53 km long
8.
Gumti
Longtharai and Atharamura range Flow westward via Amarpur,
Sonamura to Bangladesh
9.
Muhuri
Deotamura range Westward flow via Belonia to Bangladesh 64 km long
10.
Fenni
Originate at the border by confluence of three streams, of which
Asalong is the main channel
It is obvious that much of the surface water passes through a combined distance of 896 km
flow into Bangladesh.
A study of basin characteristics by CSME (1989) indicate that eight of the ten basins are within
the territorial limit of Tripura while basin areas of river Fenni and Langai are shared by two
Indian States viz. Tripura and Mizoram and Bangladesh. Collectively basin area of ten major
rivers and other minor streams covers nearly 10,500 sq. km (Table-20). In terms of percentage
of the basin of individual rivers vis-a-vis, total basin Gumti (22.66%), is followed by Manu-Deo
(18.36%) and Khowai (13.13%). Basin characteristics of the major rivers are given in the Table20, along with percentage shared by each.
The total volumes of surface water generated in Tripura largely depend on rainfall. A study of
isohyte reveal that isohyte line with highest value of 3000 mm passes through southernmost
part of Tripura, north of Sarbum while isohyte with 2750 mm-2500 mm value pass along North
19
East-South West axis and the isohyte with lowest value of 2250 mm pass through SonamuraUdaipur area. The pattern of intensity of rainfall changes differently in different district.
Most of the793 million cubic meters of surface flow in Tripura drain into the country of
Bangladesh. Actually more than 67.5% of the total flow are carried by Gumti (249 mcm), Manu
(170 mcm) and Khowai (115 mcm) rivers. While other rivers carry 32.5% of the total surface
flow. The highest flow rate of surface water is recorded for Gumti (1.05 lakh cubic meter) and
the lowest being on Burima river (0.2 lakh cubic meter). Flow characteristics of the rivers
including shared percentage in given in Table-21.
It may be noted that at least a part of surface water flow has been utilised for generation of
hydel power in Tripura. Two multipurpose river valley projects viz. Gumti and Khowai are said
to contribute 1.01 Mw of hydel power to the State.
Table-20: Basin area and percentage of basin area of total geographical area
Sl.No. Name
basin
of
the Basin
km.)
area
(sq. Percentage of the basin of total geographical
area
1.
Langa
342
3.25
2.
Juri
586
5.57
3.
Manu-Deo
1,979
18.86
4.
Dhalai
695
6.61
5.
Khowai
1,378
13.13
6.
Haora
570
5.43
7.
Gumti
2378
22.66
8.
Muhuri
839
8.00
9.
Burima
658
6.27
10.
Fenni
555
5.28
11.
Other
basins
minor 511
4.90
Total
10,491
100.00
[Source: State of Environment in Tripura, 1989 p. –72, CSME]
Table-21 : Flow Characteristics of River
Sl.No. Name of the River Annual flow(in thousand m3)
Percentage of flow to total flow
1.
Langa
9166
1.16
2.
Juri
15709
1.98
3.
Manu-Deo
170034
21.44
4.
Dhalai
42778
5.40
5.
Khowai
115854
14.61
6.
Haora
36032
4.54
7.
Gumti
249399
31.45
8.
Muhuri
76247
9.63
9.
Burima
13428
1.69
10.
Fenni
50433
6.36
11.
Other minor basins 13797
1.74
20
Total
792877
100.00
[Source: State of Environment in Tripura, 1989 p. –72, CSME]
4.1
Rivers and Flood
The available data indicate that all the rivers originating in the hill ranges can cause flood in
heavy rainfall. Flood level of at least five of the major rivers show that the danger may vary
from 1.48 meter for Haora River near Agartala to 31.50 meter for Dhalai river near Kamalpur.
Table-22 show the recorded danger level, extreme danger level and highest flood level observed,
for five of the major ten rivers of Tripura.
Table- 22: Flood level of five major rivers
Sl.No. River & Site
1.
Danger
(m)
level Extreme
level
danger Highest
flood
observed (m)
Gumti
Amarpur
Udaipur
Sonampur
River
2.
Manu
Kailashahar
River 22.00
22.50
24.60
3.
Dhalai
Kamalpur
River 31.50
32.00
33.26
3.
Khowai River Khowai
24.00
24.50
25.62
4.
Haora River Agartala
10.48
10.78
11.08
31.50
20.80
12.00
32.00
21.50
12.50
level
33.52
22.52
14.28
[Source : Flood Investigation Division, GoI]
21
Chapter
6
GROUND WATER
Phisiographically, the northeastern region can be subdivided into several units each with
distinctive characteristics. Hydrological condition is correlated with geomorphic units, which in
turn can provide reliable data on groundwater.
The major geomorphic element observed in Tripura is north-south running parallel hill regions
and intervening valleys. The hills are tightly folded anticlines with broad synclinal valleys.
These anticline hills form watersheds from which drainage patterns emerge. Geologically, the
area is occupied by the folded sedimentary formations ranging in age from lower Tertiary to
Recent. Of the various groups of rocks found, Tipam sandstones are considered the main
producer aquifer.
Extensive hydrological surveys carried out by the Central Groundwater Board in almost all the
valleys of Tripura revealed three to four major aquifers within 259m in depth. Such thickness
varies from valley to valley but decreases considerably in the synclinal valleys of Kamalpur,
Kailashsahar and Dharmanagar. The anticlinal hills intervening the synclinal valley not only
act as ground water divides but the sandy formations exposed therein act as recharge zone.
Since the recharge area lies in the anticlinal hills, favourable artesian conditions occur
whenever good thickness of impermeable clay beds underline and overlie the saturated
granular zones. Flowing conditions with auto-flow of 100 to 3000 liters per hour are found
mainly in the central part of most of the synclinal valley of Tripura.
The worthiness of ground water also varies from valley to valley. While in Agratala valley in the
west, they are positively potential, it becomes moderate towards Dharmanagar on the north
east.
Records of the technical details from 15 different locations in four districts indicate that tubewells have been successfully constructed in all the synclinal valleys of Tripura. Large number
of shallow tube-wells have been constructed by the State Government at depth of 30m to 60m.
In areas fringing the hills (within 2 to 4km), water table generally appear deep and sediments
fine, Groundwater structures in such area offered low yields and drawdowns are heavy (Prasad,
K.K. 1984, Ground Water Resource of North East India, in Resource Potential of North East
India vol. 1: 25-32, Meghalaya Science Society).
The shallow aquifer level are normally located within a depth of 50m below ground level
(sometime, it may be at 12-20m depth as in Dharmnagar valley or 5-25m in depth as in
Kamalpur valley) and the deeper aquifer occur between the depth ranges of 50m to 200m.
More details of erstwhile three district (South, North and West) groundwater resources are
available in “State of Environment Report in Tripura, 1989”.
Recent data in four districts show no decline in groundwater level for 0 to >4m. On the other
hand rise in the groundwater level at 0-2m level is noted in 42.11%, at 2-4m level the figure is
57.89% and above 4m level no rise is noted. A total of 19 sampling stations were used to
measure the rise and fall of water level during April 1999-August 1999 in Dhalai, North
Tripura, South Tripura and West Tripura (Table-23).
22
Table-23: Fluctuation in Water Table : April 1999-August 1999
District
No. of
analysed
Station Fall of Water Table
02m
Percentage 24m
Percentage >4m Percentage
Dhalai
4
0
0.0
0
0.0
0
0.0
North Tripura
3
0
0.0
0
0.0
0
0.0
South Tripura
2
0
0.0
0
0.0
0
0.0
West Tripura
10
0
0.0
0
0.0
0
0.0
of 19
0
0.0
0
0.0
0
0.0
Total Number
Sampling
District
No. of
analysed
Station Rise of Water Table
02m
Percentage 24m
Percentage >4m Percentage
Dhalai
4
2
50.0
2
50.0
0
0.0
South Tripura
2
1
50.0
1
50.0
0
0.0
North Tripura
3
1
33.3
2
66.7
0
0.0
West Tripura
10
4
40.0
6
60.0
0
0.0
of 19
8
42.11
11
57.89
0
0.0
Total Number
Sampling
[Source: Central Ground Water Board, Govt. of India]
The depth of water level in all the four districts show a typical pattern. The water level becomes
highest between the month of August and start declining from January to April.
Table-24: Depth of Water level (meter), below ground level, mbgl
Place
April‟99
August‟99
November‟99
January‟2000
Kamalpur
3.96
1.73
NA
2.29
Manu
6.22
4.41
NA
5.81
Dhalai District
North Tipura District
Kailasahar
3.90
0.83
NA
NA
Kanchanpur
NA
NA
NA
5.86
Kumarghat
8.94
7.24
NA
7.85
Panisagar
7.39
3.42
NA
5.04
1.98
NA
NA
South Tripura District
Belonia
NA
23
Subroom
NA
NA
NA
NA
Udiapur
1.86
1.10
2.30
NA
West Tripura District
Agartala
10.44
8.91
7.14
8.81
Bishalgarh
4.30
3.25
4.11
3.08
Khowai
NA
2.13
NA
4.63
Mohanpur
4.32
0.83
2.04
NA
Narsingarh
7.89
4.14
5.50
5.66
Sonamura
4.35
1.65
2.83
2.16
Teliamura
6.80
1.86
2.92
6.06
24
Chapter
7
FOREST
Forest resources play significant role in both socio-economic development and environment of
any area. The Forest ecosystem is now known to serve a multiple function in absorbing
carbonload, generation of oxygen, moderating climate, preventing soil erosion, recharging
groundwater, etc. Forest, through the process of photosynthesis, trap solar energy, which can
provide biomass for energy production. Besides producing timber and fuel, forest offer a wide
range of non-timber forest produces like leaf, fruits, flowers, gums, resins, medicinals. Above
all, forests harbour 80 percent of the biodiversity on the planet earth.
6.1
Forest Types
The forest in Tripura may be classified into three different types of classificatory system (Table25).
Table- 25: Forest type of Tripura
Sl.No.
Classificatory System
A.
Climatic Types
B.
C.
6.1.1
S. No.
Forest Types
1.
Evergreen forest
2.
Moist deciduous forest
a.
Sal forest
b.
Mixed forest
Seral Types
3.
Swamp vegetation
4.
Bamboo forest
5.
Cane forest
6.
Garjan forest
7.
Savannah forest
8.
Grass land vegetation
Edaphic Types
Evergreen Forest
Characterized by stand in distinct three tier evergreen forests exhibit numerous species of
trees, with high biodiversity but none of the species may be abundant in population. Evergreen
forests can be seen in Dharamnagar and Kailashahar area, Jampui and Sakhan hill ranges,
and in part of Belonia, Sabrum, Kamalpur and Sadar sub-division. Once occupying a large
area, evergreen forest has now been reduced significantly and exist in patches along hill slopes,
sandy river banks, etc. Species of Dipterocarpus, Artocarpus, Amoora, Elaeocarpus, Syzygium,
Eugenea dominated the top canopy.
25
6.1.2
Moist Deciduous Forest
Sal forest
The dominant species, Sal or Shorea robusta provides more than 60% of the top canopy in this
type of forest. Found in southern and northern low hills, extending up to the border of
Bangladesh, Sal forest has undergone significant changes in some areas like Sonamura, due to
expansion of paddy cultivation. Locally, Sal forest can still be found in Belonia, Udaipur,
Sonamura and part of Sadar sub-division.
Moist deciduous Mixed Forest
Characterized by absence or scarce, Sal trees, mixed forest offer dense and even canopy
reaching a height of as long as 25 meters. Such forest can be seen in Amarpur, Sonamura,
Udaipur and Sadar areas and in fragmented patches in Dharmanagar, Kailashsahar and
Kamalpur areas.
6.1.3
Bamboo and Cane Forest
Large tract of land in forest area show bamboo forest, often interrupted by evergreen or
deciduous secondary stand. Abandoned Jhum land appear favourable for natural bamboo
growth besides sheltered hollows, etc.
Cane grows extensively in the wet hollows and amidst evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist
deciduous forest. Species of Calamus (guruba, floribundus, ertectus, leptospadix, vimnialis)
dominate the thorny thickets.
6.1.4
Garjan Forest
It is basically a part of evergreen vegetation, and sometimes associated with Sal trees of moist
deciduous forest. Garjan or Dipterocarpus furbinatus forms the dominant species in these
forests occuring in Khowai, Muturi, Talatalikona, Chailengta, Deo, Dharmanagar, Jalaya and
other areas (Ref. D.C. Deb)
6.1.5
Grassland
Grasslands are formed as an edaphic climax on wet soils. Besides the natural grassland,
grassland succeeds activities of shifting cultivation, forest fire and areas of other human
activities. Aquatic grasses often occupy silted marshland enriched by silt and organic debris.
6.1.6
Swamp Vegetation
Swamps cover a large part of the geographical area of the State. The swamp areas harbour
harbaceous species, few shrubs and trees dominated by Albizia, Baringtonia, Lagerstroemia,
Macaranga, Mullotis species; herbs and grasses include Clinogyne, Phragmites and Saccharum
species.
26
6.2
Forest Area
Of the total geographical area of the State of 10,486 sq. km, a total of 6292 sq. km is recorded
as forest. The actual forest cover is however is estimated at 5745 sq. km, constituting 54.78
percent of the total geographical area. Of this, 2228 sq. km is considered dense forest, 3517 sq.
km is recorded as open forest and scrub forest, leaving 4741 as non forest area (FSI Report,
1997, 1999).
An assessment of dense forest cover, between 1972-75 and 1997-99, shows a reduction of area
from 0.60 million ha. to 0.22 million ha. (Table-26 & Fig.-7). The data reveals that maximum
loss of dense forest cover occurred between 1972-1985 after which the situation has stabilized,
increasing to 0.22 million hectare in 1999.
The actual forest cover data for the period i.e. 1972 to1997-99 shows a decline from 0.63
million ha. to 0.57 million ha. (Table-27 Fig.-8).
Table- 26: Reduction of dense forest
Sl.No.
Year
Area
ha.)
1.
1972-75
0.60
2.
1980-82
0.46
3.
1983-85
0.34
4.
1985-87
0.12
5.
1987-89
0.18
6.
1989-91
0.18
7.
1991-93
0.18
8.
1993-95
0.18
9.
1995-97
0.18
10.
1997-99
0.22
(million
27
Table- 27: Actual Forest covers changes
Sl.No. Year
Total
Geographical
(percentage)
Area Actual Cover (million
ha.)
1.
197275
60.40
0.63
2.
198082
49.46
0.51
3.
198385
54.80
0.57
4.
198587
50.08
0.53
28
5.
198789
52.80
0.55
6.
198991
52.80
0.55
7.
199193
52.80
0.55
8.
199395
52.80
0.55
9.
199597
52.80
0.55
10.
199799
54.78
0.57
On the other hand scrub land area has increased from 0.011 million ha., in 1987-89 to 0.015
million ha., in 1993-95.The forest of Tripura can be grouped under Reserve Forest (RF),
Protected Forest (PF) and unclassified forest (Table-28 Fig.-9)
Table-28: Forest Distribution
Class
RF
PF
Unclassified Forest
Total
Area (Sq. km)
3,588
509
2,196
6,293
[Source: State of Forest Report, 1997, p. 12]
When analyzed, per capita forest in the state as against total forest the figure comes to 0.228
ha. But if the same ratio is calculated against actual forest cover 553800 ha (1991), the figures
comes to 0.201 ha. With a recorded change to 574500 ha (or 5745 sq. km), and a net increase
of 21000 ha. (210 sq. km), the per capita forest now stands at 0.180 ha. This shows the rate of
population growth surpassed the rate of growth of forest 1999-2001.
29
6.3
Loss of Forest
6.3.1 Illegal Felling
The Forest Department’s document (2000) noted an alarming rise of incidence of unauthorised
felling causing an estimated amount of loss of Rs. 18.5 crore in annual revenue. Improving
ifrastructural networks and sealing of f porous border with Bangladesh, are major suggested to
stop smuggling of forest resources.
Fig.-10 : Annual outturn of timber and number of forest offences in Tripura
6.3.2 Shifting Cultivation
The slash and burn cultivation in the hill tribal areas has direct impact on forest especially
with shortening of Jhum cycle. A 1993 report of Forest Survey of India, shows loss due to
shifting cultivation vis-à-vis regeneration of old Jhum land, as also due to other reasons.
(Table-29 & Fig.-11-A & 11-B)
Table-29: Loss and Gain of Forest Cover in 1993 as compared to 1991 (in sq. km)
Loss
Loss
due
Jhuming
10
Gain
to Other
reasons
27
Total
Loss
by regeneration
cultivation land
37
15
in
shifting Other
reasons
25
Total
Gain
40
30
Data on shifting cultivation in North East India shows that out of 278,25,85 ha. Under Jhum
in seven NE States. Tripura has the lowest figure of 5,04,27 ha. (40,000 ha according to Forest
Department, 2000 AD), with 43,000 families (55049 families according to Forest Department,
2000 AD) being engaged in the practice. The ratio of families against Jhum land appears very
high when compared to Manipur where 700 Jhumia families cultivate in 57,85,29 ha. (Borah,
1998, Ind. J. Landscape Syst. & Ecol. Stud. 21(1) :56). The major areas under shifting
cultivation are scattered and fall under Survey of India, Toposheet No. 84A, 79M and 83D.
Some of the examples are South West of Kanchanpur, North and South of Machhmara and
areas near Gumti reservoir. Most of the regeneration of 15 sq. km falls under Toposheet No.
83D.
6.3.3 Forest Encroachment
The encroachment of forest land has shown an alarming trend since 1980; while an estimated
16,210 families have reportedly encroached upon forest land measuring 5305.30 ha till 1980.
The number of families rose by another 27,005 families by 1991 occupying 8620.40 ha of
additional forest land; the total number of families now stands at 43,215 occupying 13,925.71
ha; of these 8190.84 ha belong to Reserve forest, 2127.54 ha belong to proposed Reserve forest
and 3607.33 ha come under Protected forest. The latest figure from the Revenue Department,
Govt. of Tripura (1997) shows that 580 sq. km out of 6292 sq. km of forest land has been
occupied by the encroachers.
6.3.4 Forest Fire
One of the causes of loss of forest is forest fire. A five year data (1968-73) (National Commission
of Agriculture 1973) shows that average number of forest fire per year is 33, with an average of
300 ha., of forest being burnt, valued at Rs. 260000. This figure is only indicative and more
recent data may be helpful. The number of forest fire during 1968-73 however appear very high
when compared with Assam (6) Meghalaya (1) in North East India.
It is now estimated that forest fire is common in 20 percent of the total forest area of Tripura.
The major causes may be intentional burning of ground cover for grazing or for jhum
cultivation. FSI estimate of 1993 shows more than 6 percent of forest have become moderately
or heavily degraded due to forest fire. Lack of communication for early detection an lack of
firefighting equipment severally mitigatory measures.
6.3.5 Grazing
Of the two million domestic cattle of the state at least 60 percent in the forest area. This led to
soil compaction and heavy damage to plantations and natural regeneration process. Lack of
community grazing land is considered as one of the major causes for such serious degradation.
6.3.6 Rights and Concessions
The Forest Department mentions at least three different notification providing enormous
concession to the tribal population. These includes collection of house post, timber, fuel wood,
thatching grass, bamboo, cane and other non wood forest produces as also free grazing rights.
The cumulative impacts of such concessions coupled with impact of illegal felling are causing
serious concern to the management authority.
31
6.3.7 Low Financing
It is interesting to note that forestry sector outlay under the state plan decline from 3.1 percent
(1990) to 1.03 percent (1999-2000). Such sharp declines in investment in real terms are likely
to have serious impact on implementation of any management plan.
6.4 Forest Productivity and Resource based use
The annual actual production and potentiality of production of forest area in Tripura is
estimated 0.0072 million cubic meters (1961-65) and 6.21 million cubic meters respectively.
This has been calculated on the basis of Pattersoni Productivity index (CVP index- climate,
vegetation, productivity index). In calculating potential productivity, mean temperature of the
warmest month, annual range of temperature between the coldest and warmest month, mean
annual precipitation, rate of evaporation and the length of growing season in months, are taken
into consideration. (Dutt and Manikiam, 1987, ISRO-NNRMS, TR-66-87). Currently the
potential productivity estimated as 9-12 m3/ha/year.
The use pattern of forest produces are centered around Hardwood for Timber, bamboo and
Cane. Highest acarage of Bamboo forests are recorded in Northern region, specially,
Dharamnagar, Kailashsahar, Khowai and partly in Kamalpur : in the Southern part main
bamboo forest resource could be located in Amarpur. For hardwood forest, highest
concentration is recorded in Kailashsahar, followed by Khowai and Dharmanagar, all in the
northern region and Belonia and Amarpur area of southern region.
The energy consumption data reveal that 91.52% of total household depend on fuel wood in
Tripura; in the rural sector out of 492,226 household 96.16% depend on fuel wood while in
urban sector the percentage of users of fuel wood is recorded at 67.60%. The figure of fuel
wood dependency (91.52%) stands much higher than national average of 61.50% (Source:
Housing and amenities, Occ. Paper 5, of 1994, Demography Training and Data dissemination
division, Census of India)
A summary of forest resources (Table –30), district wise forest areas (Table-31), decadal
changes of forest covers (Table-32), classical forest types (Table-33) and demand and supply of
forest produce (Table-34) are given below.
Table-30 : Forest Resource
1. Forest Area
6292.681 Sq km
2. % of forest area to geographical area :
59.98%
3. Reserve Forest
3588.183 sq km.
Table-31 : District -wise areas of forest cover in the State
Sl. No.
District
Area (sq. km)
1.
North Dist
1204.594
2.
Dhalai Dist
1927.285
3.
West Dist.
1155.409
4.
South Dist
2005.393
5.
Total
6292.681
32
Table-32 : Forest Cover in the State during different Assessment Years :
Assessment
Year
Dense
Forest(>40% Open Forest(10-40% Total
density) (sq. km)
density) (sq. km)
area(sq.
km)
1989
1214
4111
5352
1991
1825
3710
5535
1993
1819
3719
5538
1995
1819
3719
5538
1997
1819
3727
5546
1999
2228
3517
5745
33
Table-33 : Forest Types
Sl.No. Forest Type
Area Sq. km
1.
East Himalayan Lower Bhabar Sal
87.77
2.
Cachar Tropical Evergreen Forests
150.94
3.
Moist mixed Deciduous Forests
550.28
4.
Low Alluvial Savannah Woodland
1316.82
5.
Moist mixed Deciduous Forests (dry bamboo Brakes)
1230.04
6.
Secondary Moist bamboo brakes
397.09
Table-34 : Demand and Supply of Forest produce
Forest
produce
Av.
per
Capita Total users Supply
per Sustainable yield Gap
demand
(millions)
annum
(million units)
(million
(m3/No/ton)
(million units)
units)
Timber
0.22 m3
Fuel Wood 0.806
m3
2.76
0.061
0.041
0.02
2.57
2.07
1.485
0.585
Bamboo
42.72 Nos.
2.57
109.82
142.60
-
Thatch
0.124
2.57
0.32
0.0127
0.32
The above tables show that the South district is richest followed by Dhalai (Table-31). The
decadal changes indicate an welcome change in increase of dense forest cover between 19891999 and decline in open forest area during the same period, with a net gain of 393 sq. km or
39300 ha. (Table-32). The gap between demand and sustainable yield vis-à-vis current rate of
extraction should cause serious concern (Table-34).
6.5 Forest Management
The management strategy at present include following programmes:
Afforestation :an area of 218,503.68 ha have been afforested during 1950-2000.
Forest Protection: a total of 8357 cases of illegal felling and others have been recorded during
1995-2000; only one case of illegal poaching is recorded.
Peoples’ Participation: under this broad heading Farm Forestry, Augan –Ban Prakalp and Joint
Forest management programme are noted. In Farm Forestry a total of 14,339.49 has been
planted during 1981-82 to 1989-90 benefiting 45,793 families (The scheme has since been
shifted to Rural Development Department).
Augan Ban Prakalp aims at productive use of fallow land in private holding. Initiated during
1996-97, it has covered 1547 ha benefiting 8357 families.
34
Joint Forest Management (JFM) during 1991-2000 has formed 160 forest protection
committee with 8303 families covering project area of 23,476.79 ha and 10084.56 ha of
plantation area.
Rehabilitation of Jhum families : Data of 1974-75 to 1984-85 show that 2226 Jhumia
families have been rehabilitated during the period. Besides the above mentioned programmes,
at least 19 State Plan Scheme are noted during 9th Five Year Plan covering Survey, Protection,
Fuel wood & Fodder schemes, Afforestation scheme and Research, Training & Extension
programmes. Besides the State Schemes, at least 12 schemes are recorded under Centrally
sponsored/Central Sector Scheme (CSS) or North east Council (NEC) Scheme during 9th Five
Year Plan. The target and achievement of these are shown in Table-35:
Table-35 : Centrally sponsored scheme (Target & Achievement)
Sl.
No.
Scheme
Target (Area in Achievement (Area in
ha)
ha)
1.
Integrated
Development
2.
Non-Timber Forest produce Project
900.00
528.18
3.
Area Oriented Fuel wood & Fodder Project
11819.00
4854.63
4.
Regeneration of Degraded Forest
510.00
95.00
5.
Catchment area (River valley) Project
3429.00
1165.50
6.
Eco-development Project
NA
NA
7.
Development of National Park & Sanctuary NA
NA
8.
Tree and Pasteur Seed Development
-
-
9.
Bamboo Plantation Project
900
NA
10.
Process aim Product development Centre (Rubber)
-
11.
Extension of Centrifuging factory
-
12.
Community
Project
Afforestation
Biodiversity
&
Eco- 5352.00
-
Conservation 3 Div.
3655.14
NA
While much of the targeted programme lagged behind the Forest Department has proposed
(Forest Dept., 2000) an ambitions perspective plan called “Vision 2010”. It includes 14 projects
to achieve five major strategic points viz.





Protection of existing resources.
Increasing Productivity
Expanding forest cover
Reducing demand
Strengthening policy & institutional framework.
35
Chapter
8
BIO-DIVERSITY
The biological diversity of any geographical region is estimated at the level of ecosystem
diversity, species diversity and genetic diversity. Tripura being a part of North-East India,
belongs to one of the two “Hot Spot” of India amongst 18 identified in the World. Hot Spots are
designated on the basis of evidences of present day distribution, diversity and linkages of crop
plants/ horticultural plants, with the past; Hot Spots are the original homeland for evolution
and distribution of such plants.
At the ecosystem level, the State exhibits a part of Mountain ecosystem with moderate hill
ranges and forest ecosystem. In between these two dominant ecosystems lies the freshwater
ecosystem comprising 10 major rivers, numerous wetlands. Undulating high lands of narrow
and broken plates cover extensive areas (Deb, 1975)
The diversity at the species level is largely determined by ecosystem diversity, which in turn is
closely, linked with soil and climatic condition. The species diversity of Tripura is largely known
from Floral and Faunal diversity studies.
7.1 Floral Diversity
The range of floral diversity for a small state like Tripura appears significant from the fact the
nearly 1463 of the 17,000 species or 8.6% Angiosperms (Flowering plants) known from India is
recorded in Tripura (0.3% land of India). A total of 1546 species other than Bacteria, Fungi,
Mosses, etc.) belonging to 862 genera and 192 families of Flora have been recorded (Deb, 1981,
1983) of which 86% are widely distributed in India and adjoining countries (Table-36).
Table-36: Flora of Tripura
Sl.No.
Plant Group
Families
Genera
Species
1.
Angiosperms
168
816
1463
A.
Dicot
139
637
1160
B.
Monocot
29
179
303
2.
Gymnosperm
6
8
13
3.
Pterodophytes
18
38
70
Total
192
862
1546
[Source : Deb, 1981 & 1985]
It is also interesting to note that the ratio of Monocot : Dicot species for Tripura is much higher
than for India (1:2.3 vis-à-vis 1:3.82).
Phytogeagraphically, Tripura belongs to the sub-zone Northern Burma (Hooker, 1909) which
includes Mizoram, Chittagounj Hills in Bangladesh and Arakan in Myanmar, besides Andaman
Islands. While a strong affinity with flora of Eastern Himalaya can be noted, absence of Alpine
flora of Abies, Jumperus, Larix, Picia and Tsuga is conspicuous; this can be attributed to
climatic and altitudinal differences which are conducive for such floral growth. On the other
hand, a palm species in Nepal and Sikkim is also recorded in Hilly terrain of Tripura.
36
Within the State, flora of northern region shows close affinity with adjacent Barak valley flora
of Assam and Sylhet area of Bangladesh. Of the other areas, Sabrum region specially shows
close affinity with flora of Chittagong district of Bangladesh (Deb….).
7.1.1 Endemism
The Eastern Himalaya region is well known for high percentage of endemism in flora and
fauna. The State of Tripura, however, does not exhibit any distinctive trait. Deb (…) opined that
due to absence of scientific exploration in the State in earlier period, many new taxa, which
have wider distribution into Tripura, were described from the adjoining regions. As such, no
significant endemicity in flora of Tripura could be noted.
7.1.2 Rare and Endangered Flora
The Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 amended till date include only six plant species while
the Red Data Book on Indian Plants published by Botanical Survey of India contains data of
more than 650 species considered rare and endangered. At least 15 of such species recorded
from Tripura are known to be Rare or Threatened (Deb….). (Table-37).
Table 37 : Rare and Threatened Taxa of Tripura
Sl.No. Name of the Species
Family
Distribution
1.
Begonia surculigera
Beginiaceae
Unokoti
2.
Colona flagrocarpa
Tiliaceae
Sakhan, Tlangsang
3.
Ophiorrhiza viillosa
Rubiaceae
Kumarghat,sipaijala
4.
Torenia mucronulata
Scrophulariaceae
Ghorakappa
5.
Tournefortia roxburghii
Scrophulariaceae
Sabroom
6.
Jasminum listeri
Oleaceae
Jampui ranges
7.
Wallichia caryotoides
Arecaceae
Baramura and Atharamura ranges
8.
Cycas pectinata
Cycadaceae
Baramura range
9.
Podocarpus neriifolius
Podocarpaceae
Lalijuri
10.
Gnetum montanum
Gnetaceae
Teliamura
11.
Gnetum oblongum
Gnetaceae
Silachari
12.
Mangifera sylvatica
Anacardiaceae
Telimura and Ambasha
13.
Dischidia benghalensis
Asclepiadaceae
Tripura
14.
Dischidia nummularia
Asclepiadaceae
Tripura
15.
Dischidia major
Asclepiadaceae
Tripura
7.1.3 Economic Botany
Deb (1975-1981) provided a detailed account of plants of economic uses. Such use pattern
include manufacture of packing box (29 species), tea chest (14 species), plywood (30 species),
musical instrument (13 species), match box (30 species), etc. A large number of species are
used as timbers of both high and low value. A list of timber producing species of Tripura is
given in Table-38.
37
Table-38 : Timber producing Flora in Tripura
Sl. No.
Scientific Name
Common Name
1.
Albizzia lucida
Silkoroi
2.
Albizzia procera
Safed Siris
3.
Artocarpus chaplasa
Sam
4.
Carrya arborea
Kumbhi
5.
Chukmsia velutina
Bogapoma
6.
Cinnamomum bejolghta
Tejpata
7.
Dillenia indica
Chalita
8.
Dillenia pentagyna
Akshi
9.
Dipterocarpus turbinatus
Kherjong
10.
Duanbanga gradiflora
Kokam
11.
Gmelina arborea
Gomari
12.
Lagerstroemia parsiflora
Sida
13.
Lagerstroemia speciosa
Ajur
14.
Magnolia pterocarpa
Thouthua
15.
Mesua ferrea
Nahor
16.
Michelia champaca
Titasopa
17.
Palaquium polyantha
-
18.
Shorea robusta
Sal
19.
Sterospermum personatum
Parolli
20.
Syzygium cuminis
Zamun
21.
Terminalia alata var. tomentosa
Asan
22.
Terminalia bellirica
Bairah
23.
Terminalia myriocarpa
Hollock
24.
Toona ciliata
-
Besides timber, the floral diversity of Tripura contributes significantly to the Bamboo and Cane
furniture and craft industry. At least 13 different bamboo species and 6 cane species are
known from the State (Table-39).
Table-39 : Bamboo and Cane Species from Tripura
Sl. No.
Scientific Name
Local Name
A.
Bamboo Species
1.
Bambusa affinis
Kanak-Kai
2.
Bambusa nutans
Kali bans
3.
Bambusa palida
Makal
4.
Bambusa polymorpha
Bari
38
Sl. No.
Scientific Name
Local Name
5.
Bambusa teris
Purua
6.
Bambusa spp.
Jai/ Purua/ Bombans
7.
Dendrocalamus hamiltoni
Ponch bans
8.
Oxylanthum albouliata
Kalai
9.
Nedhoozca dulloa
Dolu
10.
Melocana bambusoides
Mul
B.
Cane Species
1.
Calamus ereetus
NA
2.
Calamus floribundus
NA
3.
Calamus garbna
Sundibet
4.
Calamus teotopathoides
NA
5.
Calamus viminalis
Pannabet
6.
Calamus tenuis
Chachibet
[Source: Nalini K. Chakrabarti, 2001 : Deb, op.cit]
An estimate shows that at least 27 plant species contribute towards Non-Timber Forest
Produces (NTFP) including Tannin, Gum, Coloring material and others. The estimate mentions
about 107 species of plants used for fodder, 60 species of plants for human food and at least
65 species providing fruits (Nalini Chakrabarti, Media article, Dainik Sambad, Agartala, 31st
January, 2001) While 628 species of plants from Tripura are reported to contribute towards
herbal medicines. 129 species are recognized in Indian Pharmacopoeia; 61 of these species are
recorded in Tripura, 26 as wild plants and 35 under cultivated ones in the garden. Of the total
of 628 plants, following Chopra’s Glossary of Medicinal plants. 403 species grow in the wild
while 225 species can be grown in the garden; of the wild ones 143 are rare. A list of 158
medicinal plants of Tripura with local names, parts used, occurrence, flowering and fruiting
time is available in Deb (1968, 1975). Latter Forest Department of Tripura reported
documentation and identification of around 266 species of medicinal plants (68 species trees,
38 species shrubs, 71 species of herbs and 81 species of climbers). A list of more important
medicinal plants is given in Table-40.
Table-40 : List of Selected Medicinal Plants from Tripura
Sl. No.
Scientific Name
Family
1.
Andrographis paniculata
Acanthaceae
2.
Aquillaria malaceensis
Thymelaeaceae
3.
Asparagus reticulatus
Liliaceae
4.
Baeopa moniari
Scorphalariaceae
5.
Centella asiatica
Umbelliferae
6.
Hemidesmus indicus
Apocynaceae
7.
Holorrhea pubescens
Apocynaceae
8.
Hydrocarpus kurzi
Labiatae
9.
Justica adhatida
Acanthaceae
39
Sl. No.
Scientific Name
Family
10.
Marsilea minuta
Acanthaceae
11.
Ocimum tenuifloram
Labiatae
12.
Phlogacanthus thyrsiflorus
Acanthaceae
13.
Rawlfia serpentina
Apocynaceae
14.
Saraca asoca
Fabaceae
15.
Terminalia belerica
Combretaceae
16.
Terminalia chebula
Combretaceae
17.
Vitex negabdo
Verbenaceae
18.
Vitex peduncularis
Verbenaceae
7.1.4 Agri-horticultural Diversity
North Eastern region occupies an important place with respect to agri-horticultural
biodiversity. This region has a large varities of agricultural crops, viz., rice, maize, millets,
beans and pulses, horticultural crops including fruits viz. guava, ber, jackfruit, mango,
papaya, vegetable crops viz. brinjal, cucurbits, chillies, leafy vegetables, beans, colocasia and
alocasia possessing a significant genetic resource base. The most common families of agrihorticultural species in Tripura and adjoining areas are given in Table-41.
Table – 41 : Most common Families of Agri-horticultural Species
Sl. No.
Name of the Family
No. of Genera
No. of Species
1.
Papilionaceae
44
96 + var.
2.
Gramineae
49
79 + 1 var.
3.
Compositae
39
54
4.
Solanaceae
11
26 + 1 var.
5.
Cucurbitaceae
16
26 + 1 var.
6.
Malvaceae
10
25 + 1 var.
7.
Aracear
15
25 + 1 var.
North Eastern Region of India is well known as one of the 18 hotspot areas of the world for
agricultural biodiversity. Tripura being a part of north-east India exhibit a rich varieties of rice
germplasm which has been estimated to be 118 (Sadana, S., Dutta M. and Dhiman Kr. ICAR
Research Complex for North East India, Tripura, personal communication). A total 119
cultivers of local rice varieties collected from different parts of Tripura were evaluated by the
scientist of ICAR with reference to vigour, total number of grains, hundred gain weight and
single plant yield, etc. In grain yield wide variation ranging from 0.18 to 22.68 gram was
observed (single plant yield). These germplasm have been conserved in the gene bank of
National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. No systematic programme for on-farm
conservation is existent.
Plant Breeding Division of the Agriculture Department has collected and maintained a
germplasm of 29 wild varieties of rice, 5 of small millet (Kaon), 5 of maize, 1 of cotton, 1 of
sesame, 1 of arhar, 2 of moong, and 2 of black gram.
40
Among the beans and pulses, the region is quite rich and 10 species of beans have been
recorded and huge bio-type variation have been collected within the species.
North Eastern Region is regarded as a secondary centre for maize (Zea maize) but 5 bio-types
have been recorded in the Jhum areas of the state. Local biotypes of brinjal and chilies are rich
in Tripura. The ICAR Centre has collected and catalouged 20 biotypes of brinjal and 16
biotypes of chilies.
Tripura and adjoining area of Bangladesh has 95-96 prominent vegetable species. Cucurbits
have as many as 17 species with a large number of varieties. Sweet potato has two major types
and within these types, 3-4 biotypes have been recorded.
Amaranth has six types in the state. Rhizotomatous crops belonging to family Araceae have 6
species and 20 biotypes. Dioscorcaceae has 5 species with 23 biotypes, which are generally
found in upland and forest areas.
There are 5 types of seasamums, 3 types of cotton and 5-6 types jute and mesta lines native to
Tripura.
The State is quite rich in fruits and spice crops also. There are 60 fruit crops cultivated in
Tripura. The indigenous fruit crops have huge genetic variety, viz. banana with good number of
biotypes, jackfruit with 28 variables. Other indigenous fruits included Amra, Guava, Ber,
Gulapzam, Zamrul, Bael, Satkara, Taal, Totka, Gaab, Kamranga, Sharifa, Chafta, Jalpai,
Karamcha, Dalim, Paniphal etc.
In the State there are 27 species of spices available but most of them are introduced other than
chilies, zinger, cinnamon and turmeric; variability available is restricted within these species
only.
7.2 Faunal Diversity
The faunal diversity of the State can be viewed from Aquatic and Terrestrial ecosystems. In the
aquatic system, at least 129 species of fishes are recorded belonging to 32 families, and 11
order, the largest number of species being from the family Cyprinidae (49 species, including
Rohu, Katla, Kalbasu, Puthi, Mahasheer, Chela, etc.). it has been recorded that the majority of
the fishes are common to both Indo-Gangetic drainages and South East Asian fish fauna. The
occurrence of some marine and estuarine fishes Pisodonophis boro, Tenualosa ilisha (Hilsa)
(Hamilton), Nematolosa nasus (Bloch) and Johnius coitor (Hamilton) may be attributed with the
riverine migration to Meghna and Gumti system from Bay of Bengal. The fishes of the State
include 11 vulnerable species three endangered species and three rare species (Table- 42). At 9
species endemic to India are recorded from Tripura (Barman, R.P, Pisces, Fauna of Tripura,
Vol.–1, Zoological Survey of India, In Press). The amphibian are represented by only two species
while Reptiles are represented by 32 species including three species of freshwater turtles and
tortoises and three species of water snakes. Besides the turtle aquatic snakes at least 13
species of lizards including two species of monitor lizards, Varanus bengalensis (Daudin) and
Varanus salvator (Laurenti) are known from Tripura; both the species of varanus are
endangered; at least 13 species of snakes other than the aquatic snakes are known from the
State of which Python molurus molurus (Linnaeus), common Indian Python is an endangered
species. (Sanyal, D.P., Dutta Gupta, B., and Gayen, N.C. Reptilia, Fauna of Tripura, Vol.-1,
Zoological Survey of India, In, Press). No aquatic mammal has been recorded from the State.
41
Table-42 : Vulnerable, Endangered and Rare Fish fauna in the State
Sl. No.
Scientific Name
A.
Vulnerable Species
1.
Notopterus notopterus (Pallas)
2.
Cyprinion semiplotus(McClelland)
3.
Schismatorhynchus nukta(Sykes)
4.
Labeo pangusia(Hamilton)
5.
Chagunius chagunio(Hamilton)
6.
Bitia almoraeGray
7.
Rita rita(Hamilton)
8.
Aorichthys aor(Hamilton)
9.
Aorichthys seenghala(Sykes)
10.
Pangasius pangasius(Hamilton)
11.
Bagarius bagarius(Hamilton)
B.
Endangered Species
12.
Raiamas bola(Hamilton)
13.
Tor putitora(Hamilton)
14.
Tor tor(Hamilton)
C.
Rare Species
15.
Barilius nelsoni
16.
Puntius
clavatus(Hamilton)
17.
Puntius gelius (Hamilton)
clavatus
The invertebrate fauna include 27 species of Protzoans, 30 species of Crustaceans, 10 species
of Rotifers, two species of annelids, 14 species of insects (water beetles, bugs, Odonates,
mosquitoes, etc.) and six species of Mollusca.
As such the freshwater ecosystem of the State harbour a rich biodiversity at different hierchial
level including important food-species of fin fish and shell fish. Recent investigation reveal a
number of fish species have become endangered including common species viz. Chana striatus,
C. marulius, labeo bata, L. pangasia, L. dero, Mystus seengala, M. aor, Ompak pabda, O.
bimaculatus, O. paba, Wallago autto, Natopterus chitala, Macroganthus aculeatus,
Mastacembelus armatus, enentodon concila, Rita rita, Bagarius bagarius pangusius pangusius
and Danio debario due to changing water quality and heavy silt load. Of all the species,
Mahaseer, comprising of Tor tor and Tor putitora fish appear to be most endangered in the
State.
Details of aquatic system (provided by Prof. B.K. Agarwala, Tripura University) are appended
(Table-43). The total water resource area is given in Table-44.
42
Table-43 : Areas under land and water cover
1. Total land area
10.49.169.00 hectares
2. Total water area
22.924.58 hectares
3. Total water area of biotic resources
20.492.59 hectares
Table- 44 : Aqua-bioresource Pattern
Sl. No.
Resource Types
Area (in hectares)
A.
Culturable resource
Water area
Biotic resource
2
Ponds/Tanks
8850.90
7970.31
3.
Mini Barrages
4068.68
3658.28
B.
Partly culturable
1.
Gomoti River
4500.00
4000.00
2.
Natural lake (Rudrasagar)
240.00
130.00
C.
Capturable resource
1.
Rivers & Rivulets
5260.00
4734.00
7.2.1 Terrestrial Fauna
The terrestrial fauna of Tripura appears equally rich in terms of species diversity.
7.2.1.1 Mammalian Fauna
Mammalian fauna was reported to be composed 54 species (Bhattacharya, 1998) representing
9 orders. Forest Department, Government of Tripura (2000) recorded 90 mammalian species
under 65 genera and 10 orders (Table-45). These represent more than 33% of the total
mammalian fauna known from India. Of the 15 primate species known from India 7 species
have been recorded from Tripura of which Phayre’s Leaf Monkey (locally known as “Chashma
Banar”) is the most dominant species. Endangered species of primates, besides Leaf Monkey
include Slow Loris, Stumped-tail Macaque, Pigtail Macaque and the only tail less ape, Hollock
Gibbon. Some of the mammalian species like common Tree Shrew, Indian Bison, Chinese
Pangolin is reported to be very rare, while the population of Hoolock Gibbon, Indian Elephant
and Jackal are reported to be declining.
Population status (1989) of three mammalian species namely Leopard, Bison and Indian
Elephant show as total of 39 Leopards, 92 Bisons and 162 Elephants. While Leopards and
Elephants are recorded from North, South, West and Dhalai district, Bisons are only recorded
from South district.
43
Table- 45 : Land Mammal Genera & Species of Tripura compared with India
S. No.
Order
General
Species
India
Tripura
India
Tripura
1.
Insectivora
11
4
28
4
2.
Chiroptera
36
8
110
9
3.
Primates
6
4
15
8
4.
Pholidota
1
1
2
1
5.
Carnivora
33
20
55
31
6.
Proboscidae
1
1
1
1
7.
Perissodactyla
2
1
3
1
8.
Artiodactyla
20
9
32
10
9.
Lagomorpha
3
1
10
1
10.
Rodentia
43
15
101
24
Total
156
64
357
90
7.2.1.2 Avian Fauna
The avian fauna is composed of 341 species belonging to 51 families of which 77 species are
winter visitors. It may be noted that Tripura with only 0.4 percent of the total geographical area
of India exhibits more than 25% of the avian species diversity of the country. Of the avian
species 4 species belong to Schedule I and 271 species belong to Schedule IV of the Indian
Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Amended till date.
7.2.1.3 Reptilian Fauna
The reptilian fauna of Tripura is composed of 32 species under 28 genera and 11 families.
These include 3 species of turtles and tortoise, 13 species of lizards, and 15 species of snakes.
At least three species of reptiles are listed as endangered under Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act.,
1972. (Sanyal, D.P. et.al. Reptilia, Fauna of Tripura, Vol.-1, Zoological Survey of India, In
Press)
7.3 Rare and Threatened Fauna
Table- 46 : Rare and Threatened Fauna of Tripura
Sl. No. Common Name
Scientific Schedule-I WL(P) Act
Name
Appendix-I CITES
Nycticebus coucang
+
-
A.
Mammal
1.
Slow Loris
2.
Phayre’s Leaf Monkey Presbytis phayrei
+
-
3.
Capped Langur
Presbytis pileatus
+
+
4.
Hoolock Gibbon
Hylobates hoolock
+
+
5.
Leopard
Panthera pardus
+
+
44
6.
Marbled Cat
Felis marmorata
+
+
7.
Leopard Cat
Felis bengalensis
+
+
8.
Golden Cat
Felis temmincki
+
+
9.
Common Otter
Lutra lutra
-
+
10.
Indian Elephant
Elephas maximus
+
+
11.
Indian Bison
Bos gaurus
-
+
12.
Chinese Pangolin
Manis pentadactyla
+
-
7.4 Domesticated Animal Species Diversity
No detail information on the breeds of domesticated animal is available. According Dept. of
Animal Resources Development, Govt. of Tripura, the population of indigenous breed of cattle,
buffalo (Raing and Manipuri) pig, goat (Black Bengal), duck have been estimated during 1992
and 1997. An analysis of the data shows more than 25% decline in indigenous cattle
population nearly 50% decline of indigenous buffalo population and pig population, nearly 40
decline of indigenous goat population and 30% decline in indigenous duck population between
1992 and 1997. This trend should cause serious concern and calls for an appropriate
management strategy for conservation of genetic resources of domesticated animal species. A
field based survey of breeds of domesticated animal should be of prime necessity to obtain the
benchmark data before any management plan is conceived.
7.5 Biodiversity Conservation
The State Government has set up a total of 4 Sanctuaries covering 604 sq. km for in situ
conservation. One more Sanctuary in Athramura hill range is proposed to be notified. It is to be
noted that notification under 26(A) of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 are yet to be issued for all
the four sanctuaries, while there are already tremendous stress and man and animal conflict
are reported to be rise. Details of the four sanctuaries are given in following Table-47.
Table – 47 : Sanctuaries in Tripura
Sl.
No.
Name
of
sanctuary
1.
Sepahijala
Sanctuary
Wildlife 18.540
Birds and primates. migratory birds in the winter
2.
Gumti
Sanctuary
Wildlife 389.540
Elephant, samber, barking deer, wild goats. serrow etc.
3.
Trishna
Sanctuary
Wildlife 194.710
Bison, leopard. barking deer, wild dog, capped languor,
king cobra, spectacled monkey, slow lorries, etc.
4.
Roa
Sanctuary
Wildlife 0.860
Many species of birds and primates
Total
the Area
Km2
in Important flora and fauna found
603.650
With regard to ex situ conservation only one Zoological garden has been established in
Sephalijila. The Zoo contains 408 animals belonging 46 different species of fauna. Captive
breeding programmes of some selected species including Leopard cat, Spotted Dear and
Primates have been initiated.
45
Under a centrally sponsored scheme on “non-timber forest produce including medicinal plants”
more than 500 ha of plantation is being raised with trees having medicinal values, in degraded
forest land. The species grown include Arjun, Bahera¸ Palas, Haritaki, Amla, Neem, etc.
7.6 Problems relating to Biodiversity Conservation
7.6.1 Habitat Destruction :
Change of land use due to conversion of forest for non forestry purposes specially to meet the
demand of plantation crops and development activities cause serious concern for and
degradation of wildlife habitat. No quantified data is available on annual or decadal basis for
such conversion activities.
7.6.2 Grazing :
There is no pasture land in the state for livestock grazing. It is estimated that 60% of the
livestock graze in the forest land. This far exceeds the carrying capacity of the forests and
causes destruction of young growth of the forest and destruction of habitat for the wild
animals.
7.6.3 Forest Fires
Forest fires are common and frequent in the state. It is now estimated that forest fire is
common in 20 percent of the total forest area of Tripura. The major causes may be intentional
burning of ground cover for grazing or for jhum cultivation. This led to complete wiping out the
forest regeneration in some areas, (natural as well as artificial) and wildlife is severely
damaged.
7.6.4 Shifting Cultivation
The slash and burn cultivation in the hill tribal areas has direct impact on biodiversity viz.
destruction of wildlife and natural habitat, loss of natural forest and loss of ecological balance
including destruction of feeding, breeding and roosting grounds.
7.6.5 Introduction of Exotic Species
Due to change in agricultural practices and emphasis in food security a number of plant
species have been introduced in Tripura. It is estimated that 280 species of plant have been
introduced in the state during the past period. The impact of such introduction has never been
assessed but it may be assumed that in number of local indigenous varieties have become rare
or have disappeared due to introduction of exotics.
7.6.6 Illegal Hunting
The conservation of biodiversity depends on strict protective measures in the field condition
besides, appropriate legal instrument. Due to disturbed geopolitical condition, it is
apprehended that illegal hunting pressure has increased in many remote and isolated dense
forest areas. In absence of lack of appropriate monitoring and surveillance mechanism, the
human pressure on wildlife may continue to increase.
46
Chapter
9
AGRICULTURE
Introduction
The first agricultural census (as a part of 4th World Agricultural Census of 1970) was
conducted as far back as in 1970-71. This was followed by Second Agricultural Census of
1976-77, Third Agricultural Census of 1980-81, Fourth Agricultural Census of 1985-86 and
the Fifth Agricultural Census of 1990-91.
8.1 Holding and Land Use
The agricultural census data of 1985-86 and that of 1990-91 indicate a changing profile of
holding. Marginal holding (below 1.0ha) declined by 18.5%, small holding (1-2ha) by 7.0% but
semi-medium (2-4ha) increased by 3.2%, medium ones (4-10ha) increased by 28.8%, and large
holding (10ha & above) increased by 148.3% between the period under study.
The area of operational holding of the State under each category of land use with their
respective percentage in 1985-86 and 1990-91 clearly indicates a decline in net sown area
(from 85.3 to 79.17%), current fallow area (from1.2 to 1.8%) and net cultivated area (from 86.5
to 80.9%). During the same period total uncultivated land area increased in terms of
percentage from 3.6% to 9.9%.
The Economic Review, Tripura for the year 1999-2000, (P-35) also provided a different and
changing profile of land use. It is noted that the net sown area of the state was increased to
281,000 ha. in 1998-1999 but declined to 279,000 ha. in 1999-2000 but even then it shows a
significant rise from the figure of 270,913 (1985-1986) and 243,950 (1990-1991) [vide Table
48].
Table-48: Land Use
Sl.
No.
Land use
Area
(ha) Percentage
1985-86
1985-86
Area
(ha) Percentage
1990-91
1990-91
1.
Net Sown Area
270913
85.3
243950
79.1
2.
Current Fallow
3841
1.2
5389
1.8
3.
Net Cultivated
(1+2)
86.5
249339
80.9
4.
Uncultivated Land
11488
3.6
30749
9.9
5.
Land not available for 31350
cultivation
9.9
28288
9.2
6.
Total
100.00
308376
100.00
Area 274754
317592
[Source: State Report on Agricultural Census 1990-91, p.36]
47
The cropping pattern has been changed drastically with food crops occupying 96.36% leaving
only 3.64% for non-food crop area.
8.2 Irrigation
The agricultural census data of 1985-86 and 1990-91 also provide an insight into the
percentage of wholly irrigated, partly irrigated, wholly unirrigated, net irrigated and net
unirrigated land area and percentage in terms of total sown area. While only 2.1% of total sown
area were wholly irrigated in 1985-86 a marginal increase to 3.6% is noted in 1990-91. For
partly irrigated sown area, the corresponding figure changed significantly from 4.1% to 10.5%.
It is to be noted that while in 1985-86, wholly unirrigated sown area was 93.5%, the figure
declined to 85.8% in 199-91. The net irrigated area increased from 4.2 to 7.7% during the
same period.
The source of irrigation may be canal, tank, well, tube well or others. Canal irrigation shows a
nearly doubled the area in terms of increase of coverage from 13.9% to 25.2% during 1985-86
to 1990-91. For tank irrigation, the corresponding figure changed from 2.5% to 10.8%. Total
net irrigated area shows an increase from 11291 ha to 18858ha during the same period under
study; however the bulk irrigation is provided by a combination of systemic from other sources
(82.6% in 1985-86 to 55.1% in 1990-91). The intensity of irrigated crop area is calculated at
1.605 (Ref State Report on Agricultural Census, 1990-91).
It is also projected that of the total of 2,79,000 ha. of cultivable land, 1,77,000 ha. could be
irrigated from surface water (79,000 ha.) and ground water (38,000 ha.) sources. The target to
provide assured irrigation water to the entire command area is fixed at 2010 AD.
8.3 Agricultural Crops
The census data clearly indicates that cereal growing area of the State extends over 69.5% of
the total area under cultivation while pulses are grown only in 0.8% of land. Next to cereals, of
which 69.3% out of 69.5% is occupied by Rice cultivation, the fiber crops specially Jute and
Mesta occupy 9.6% of the cultivated area. This is followed by Fruits (6.8%) and Vegetables
(4.1%), etc. The total food crop area occupies 70.3% of the area, total non fruit crop area
remains limited to only 17%. Besides Rice, Jute, Mesta fruits and vegetables, sugarcane (0.4%)
and oilseeds (1.3%) are other crops grown in agricultural field of the State (Table-49) (Ref.:
State Report on Agricultural Census, 1990-91, Tripura, p.-52).
48
Table-49 : Agriculture in Tripura 1990-91
Sl. No.
Crop
Area (ha)
Percentage
Gross Cropped area : 297108 ha.
Net Sown area 213950 ha
A.
Cereals
1.
Rice
206022
69.3
2.
Wheat
206
0.1
3.
Other Cereals
444
0.5
Total Cereal
206672
69.5
Pulses
2336
0.8
Total Food Grain
209008
70.3
C.
Sugarcane
1316
0.4
D.
Fruit
20071
6.8
E.
Vegetable
12041
4.1
F.
Other food crops
4329
1.5
Total food crops
246765
83.1
G.
Oilseed
3875
1.3
H.
Fibers
1.
Jute & Mesta
26938
9.1
2.
Other Fibers
1654
0.5
Total Fibers
28592
9.6
Other non food crop
17876
6.6
Total non food crop
50343
16.9
Gross Cropped area
297108
100.00
B.
I.
49
Table 49 B: Cropping Pattern 1990-1991 and 1999-2000
Sl. No.
Crops
1990-1991
1999-2000
1
Cereals
69.5
89.92
2
Pulses
0.8
2.21
3
Food grain (1+2)
70.3
92.13
4
Condiments & Spices
11.3
1.70
5
Other food crops
1.5
2.53
6
Total food crops (3+4+5)
83.1
96.36
7
Oilseeds
1.3
2.35
8
Pulses and other non-food crop
16.2
1.29
9
Total non food crop
16.9
3.64
Total (6+9)
100.00
100.00
8.4 Fertilizers
The fertilizers used in Tripura include Super Phosphate, Urea, Die-ammonium Phosphate,
Murate of Potash and mixed fertilizer.
8.5 Changing Profile
The foregoing account largely reflects the agricultural scenario during 1980-1990 period. Most
recent data available from Department of Agriculture show a significant trend of change in
terms of area covered under different crops. The rice growing area has increased from 206022
ha of 1990-91 to 232160 ha in 1999-2000 (11.25%). The wheat growing area extended from
206 ha in 1990-91 to 1250 ha in 1999-2000 (506.79%). While total pulses covered only 2336
ha in 1990-91, it has more than doubled to 6390 ha in 10 years. A detailed district wise
account of crop and area under cultivation is given in Table-50.
Table-50 : Area under Cultivation in ha. (1999-2000)
Crop
Districts
North
Dhalai
West
South
Total
Rice
39085
24985
99140
68950
232160
Maize
185
225
465
375
1250
Wheat
117
300
627
206
1250
Gram
22
20
111
62
215
Other Pulses
986
1006
2707
1476
6175
Total Pulses
1008
1026
2818
1538
6390
Groundnut
140
317
482
211
1150
Sesamum
405
360
785
450
2000
Rape & Mustard
520
1087
750
628
2985
Total Oilseeds
1065
1760
2221
1089
6135
50
Potato
750
445
1755
2600
5550
Chilies
355
418
604
533
1910
Ginger
195
170
305
390
1060
Tobacco
73
122
30
70
295
Sugarcane
230
318
165
302
1015
Turmeric
243
230
482
505
1460
Jute
62
106
427
255
850
Mesta
120
320
590
470
1500
Cotton
123
581
52
108
865
The irrigated area covering different crops also extended from 18,858ha (7.7%) to 50333ha
nearly tripling the area in 10 years. The details of different crops under irrigation (partly or
wholly) is given in Table-51.
Table-51 : Irrigated Area under different Crops (in ha) 1999-2000
Sl. No.
Crop
Area (hectares)
1.
Rice
37665
2.
Wheat
700
3.
Total Pulses
910
4.
Sugarcane
350
5.
Fruits & Vegetables
9745
6.
Total Oilseeds
905
7.
Other non-food crops
58
Total
50333
The consumption pattern of NPK fertilizer during 1999-2000 in four district of Tripura is given
in Table-52:
Table-52 : Consumption of Chemical fertilizers (in M.T.) (1999-2000)
Fertilizer
Districts
North
Dhalai
West
South
Total
N
481
427
2955
2463
6326
P
282
129
799
532
1742
K
302
338
151
51
842
Total
1065
894
3905
3046
8910
[Source: Dept. of Agriculture, Govt. of Tripura, 2001]
The data on detailed categories of pesticides e.g. organochlorine, organophosphate, others is
not available. But the available data reveal use of 17.382 metric tonnes of pesticides during
51
1999-2000 for agricultural fields in Tripura in 272855 ha i.e. 64 gm/ha of pesticides per ha
had been used in the State (Table-53).
Table-53 : Pesticides Consumption (in MT Tech. Grade) (1999-2000)
Sl. No.
Category
Amount
A.
Indigenously Produced
1.
Insecticides
9.866
2.
Fungicides
7.466
3.
Weedicides
NA
4.
Rodentocides & Fumigants
0.034
B.
Imported
1.
Insecticides
0.016
Total
17.382 M.T.
Table- 54 : District wise consumption of Plant Protection Material & Tech. Grade during
2000-2001
Material
Tech. grade
1
West
7.961 MT/KL
2.427 MT/KL
2
South
12.188 MT/KL
3.692 MT/KL
3
North
7.178 MT/KL
2.690 MT/KL
4
Dhalai
4.807 MT/KL
1.531 MT/KL
Total
32.142 MT/KL
10.340 MT/KL
Table- 55 : Consumption of Plant Protection Chemical (Item wise)
Pesticides
April
May
June
Total
Blitox
0.001
0.004
0.009
0.014
Bavistin
0.001
0.002
0.004
0.007
Mancozeb
0.018
0.073
0.052
0.143
Furadun 3 gr.
--
0.001
0.007
0.008
Malathien 5/DP
0.142
0.092
0.079
0.313
Durmef
0.088
0.186
0.147
0.421
Endosulfan 35%
0.058
0.099
0.112
0.269
Lindane 6.5/DP
--
0.002
0.003
0.005
Captan 75% WP
0.001
0.032
0.012
0.045
Neemgreen
--
0.009
0.033
0.042
Dathamethrin
0.001
0.009
0.010
0.020
52
Phosalone 35%
0.026
0.107
0.171
0.304
Topsin M-70
0.002
0.010
0.013
0.025
Plantomycin
--
0.003
0.001
0.004
Phomidon
0.011
0.039
0.036
0.086
Zink Phosphide
0.002
0.001
0.002
0.005
Monocrotophos
0.011
0.001
--
0.012
Sumicidon
0.002
--
--
0.002
Total
0.364
0.670
0.691
1.725
The total impact of increase use of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water led to increase
productivity and intensification of agricultural practices in the State (Table-56).
Table-56 : Yields in kg per ha (1999-2000)
Crop
Districts
North
Dhalai
West
South
Average
Rice
1987
1748
2319
2239
2073.25
Maize
810
800
795
800
801.25
Wheat
1880
1883
1938
1942
1910.75
Gram
619
500
655
645
604.75
Other Pulses
522
565
850
573
627.50
Total Pulses
524
563
840
575
625.50
Groundnut
685
918
942
1085
907.50
Sesamum
320
444
414
411
397.25
Rape & Mustard
592
799
720
888
749.50
Total Oilseeds
501
748
660
729
659.50
Potato
10676
18313
18352
18270
16402.75
Chilies
648
522
612
605
596.75
Ginger
1769
1718
2065
2008
1890
Tobacco
384
369
400
457
402.50
Sugarcane
54330
52632
51156
43462
500395.00
Turmeric
1564
1548
1875
2376
1840.75
Jute*
7.9
7.6
8.0
7.8
7.82
Mesta*
7.3
7.4
7.2
7.9
7.45
Cotton**
1.6
1.2
1.7
1.5
1.50
[Note: * = 180 kg/ha; ** = 170kg/ha]
8.6 High Yielding Varieties:
An increasing trend of the use of high yielding varieties of seeds for rice and wheat can be
noted in all the district of Tripura. Of the total rice growing area of 232160 ha., 86% or 201760
ha. is occupied by high yielding varieties. Of the four district, the West district shows a figure
53
of 92% followed by South district (88%), North district (79%) and Dhalai district (70%). In case
of wheat, entire area of 1250 ha. in the state is occupied by high yielding varieties. No separate
effort for on-farm conservation of indigenous/folk rice varieties is noted. This is absolutely
essential for conservation of gene-pool and free exchange of seeds between farmers of the state.
8.7 Plantation Crop
8.7.1 Horticultural Crops:
The state has a long tradition of growing horticultural crops. Recent data clearly denotes the
enormous potential of horticultural crops (Table:-57) showing significant rise in term of area
coverage and production.
Table-57 : Decadal changes of Horticultural Crops
1981-1982
1988-1989
1999-2000
Area
Area
Area
Production (MT)
Production (MT)
Production (MT)
Pineapple
2,350 10,205
3,269 24,500
4,697 42,273
Orange
3,320 9,550
6,525 31,360
5,427 29,850
Jackfruit
6,420 1,68,000
6,535 1,71,600
8,929 2,50,021
Coconut
1,620 16,80,000 (Nos.)
7,026 42,16,000 (Nos.)
9,184 81,08,000 (Nos.)
Arecanut
653
1,223 2,230
2,436 4,872
Cashewnut
1,538 120
6,419 540
7,039 2,816
Litchi
3,220 4,020
8,837 5,300
4,800 28,800
970
[Source: Economic Review, Tripura, 1999-2000.]
8.7.2 Rubber
Of the plantation crops in Tripura, Rubber, introduced by the Forest Department in 1963 has
taken the place of pride. Currently approximately 23,000 ha., land are under natural rubber
plantation in Tripura spread of four districts. The West Tripura district has 9,953 ha., in 320
villages, followed by South Tripura- 8,246 ha., in 114 village areas, North Tripura- 3,594 ha.,
in 60 village areas and Dhalai district-1,141 ha., in 38 village areas. The production data as
per 1999-2000 Economic Review stands at 6346 mt, valued at Rs. 1649 lakh. Tripura is the
second largest rubber producing state in India after Kerala.
However, potential of extending Rubber production area, according to survey report of National
Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning in recent year, shows as 1.0 lakh hectare or 10
percent of the total geographical area of the State; it shows therefore a scope for 4 fold
increase.
No Environmental Impact Assessment has been carried out on the changing land use and land
cover pattern due to suggested expansion of rubber plantation. The possible impact should be
studied on soil, forest resource change, biodiversity and hydrology.
Currently raw rubber is being sent out for value addition. A proposal is in the offing for value
added product of rubber to be manufactured within the State.
54
8.7.3 Tea
Tea plantation in the State is reportedly facing serious crisis due to insurgency problem. No
recent data on the area under tea, number of operational garden, annual production and total
value of the production is available. However, the last available data of 1994 and 1995 data
shows that, the State has 55 tea gardens covering an area of 6433.08 ha. The production as
per 1995 data stands at 49,25,053 kg (both Black and Green tea) and number of workers
working in that period was 10,576 daily on an average. Table-58 shows the district wise
number of gardens, production during the year of 1995.
Table -58 : District wise number of gardens, production
Sl. No.
District
No. of Tea garden
Production (in kg)
1.
North Tripura
23
3268590
2.
West Tripura
24
1259514
3.
South Tripura
3
28792
4.
Dhalai
5
315157
Total
55
4925053
8.8 Soil Fertility and Agriculture
An ICAR report shows that soils under shifting cultivation sites, a gradual decline in soil pH,
organic carbon, CEC, available NPK and exchangeable Ca and Mg within a three year cycle (M.
Datta et.al. 1995). Water holding capacity also decreased in the shifting cultivation areas.
Available nitrogen though declined over the shifting cycle was however not in the deficient
range.
8.9 Animal Husbandry
The livestock populations include Cattle, Buffalo, Sheep, Goat, Pig; the impact of grazing on the
forest ecosystem can be correlated with the increase or decline of livestock, specially Cattle and
Buffalo. The available data for three quinquennial census shows a distinct upward trend
(Table-59). No recent quantified data on milk yield, meat yield vis-à-vis the number of livestock
is available. The last data available for milk production shows an increase from 25,000 t (198687) to 39,000 t in 1995-96.
Table- 59 : Livestock and Poultry population according to Livestock Census 1997 in
Tripura
Sl. No. Species West district
South district
Dhalai district
North district
Tripura
1
Cattle
645393
269198
112871
200106
122756
2
Buffalo
9320
1870
4441
2261
17892
3
Sheep
3101
1915
545
593
6154
4
Goat
341223
139863
49737
108592
639415
5.
Pig
100495
94940
9838
31624
236897
6.
Duck
457441
192086
56579
170413
876519
7.
Fowl
1400602
635153
197977
443521
2677253
55
[Source: Directorate of Animal Resource Development]
The poultry population- Duck and Fowl-likewise shows a remarkable growth rate, almost
doubling in 10 years period (Table-60)
Table-60: Comparative Livestock and Poultry population as per last three quinquennial
Livestock and Poultry Census
Species Population
1987
Population
1992
Increase/
Decrease (%)
Population
1997
Increase/
Decrease (%)
Cattle
950239
13% (+)
1227568
23% (+)
Buffalo 16418
19681
17% (+)
17892
9% (-)
Sheep
2833
4885
42% (+)
6154
21% (+)
Goat
441972
513176
14% (+)
639415
20% (+)
Pig
88230
188271
53% (+)
236897
21% (+)
Duck
460918
612361
25% (+)
876519
30% (+)
Fowl
1397697
1975738
29% (+)
2677253
26% (+)
827588
[Source: Directorate of Animal Resource Development]
Of all the districts of Tripura, West District seems to be most richly endowed with domesticated
animal resources.
The numbers of breeding farms for cattle, Pig and Poultry farms have increased by three times
between 1990-91 and 1998-99, with the highest number being in the West District (Table-61).
Table - 61: Breeding farms in Tripura
Sl. No. District
Cattle Breeding Farms Poultry Breeding Farms Pig Breeding Farms
1.
West District
2
1
2
2.
North District -
1
1
3.
South District -
1
2
4.
Dhalai District -
-
1
Total
3
6
2
[Source: Directorate of Animal Resource Development, 1999]
No data was available on the census of domesticated breeds of animals in the State, which is
deemed essential for conservation of animal genetic resources. However a ratio of total
crossbreed and indigenous varieties of Cattle, Buffalo and Pigs for the years 1982, 1987 and
1992 could be seen in Table-62.
Table – 62 : Indigenous & Cross Breed Domesticated animal resource
Year Cattle
Indigen- Cross
ous
breed
Buffalo *
Sheep
Pigs
Goats
Indigenous/
Cross breed
Indigenous Cross Indigen- Cross
breed ous
breed
Indigen- Cross
ous
breed
1982 644374
36045 15904
4881
378
98521
4927
343029
-
1987 766109
61479 16418
2626
207
85026
3204
441972
-
1992 842836
87403 19681
4631
254
176137
12134 513176
-
[Note : * Indigenous and Cross Breed not differentiated]
56
[Source: State Animal Husbandry Department, Govt. of Tripura]
The above table shows that indigenous varieties distinctly outnumber the population of
crossbreed varieties during 1982, 1987, 1992 census.
8.10 Fisheries
The inland water area of Tripura and its biological resources has been dealt under
“Biodiversity”. The available data for 1990-91to 1998-99 shows marginal increase of
commercial fishing from 21,100 mt in 1990-91 to 23,764 mt in 1998-99. The subsistence
fishing data however shows remarkable changes from 95 mt in 1990-91 to 3325 mt in 1998-99
(Table-63).
Table-63: Production of fish in Tripura
Year/District Production (in mt)
Fish Curring (Sun drying)
Inland
fish
Subsistence
fish
Total
Value
lakh)
(in Production
mt)
(in Value
lakh)
1990-91
21100
95
21195
5931
22
3
1991-92
21640
1604
23244
6973
11
3
1992-93
21730
1636
23366
7009
14
5
1993-94
22542
1960
24502
7840
15
6
1994-95
23095
2008
25103
8786
15
11
1995-96
23396
2314
25710
10541
46
38
1996-97
21980
3020
25000
11250
876
658
1997-98
23343
3149
26492
12981
488
439
1998-99
23764
3225
26989
13494
499
469
1184
9264
(9373)
4632
249
234
North District 4400
662
5062
(5182)
2531
66
63
South District 8319
1001
9320
(9522)
4660
151
142
Dhalai
District
378
3343
(3798)
1671
33
30
(in
(By District) 1998-99
West District
8080
2965
Note:
1. Excluding subsistence fish,
2. Catch of fish by non-professional.
3. Within parenthesis, data is based on 1999-2000.
[Source: Superintendent Engineer, Water Resource, Govt. of Tripura]
The area under fish culture is currently estimated at 22.921 ha with 29,340 mt production in
2000 AD. During 2000 AD, 1,04,952 fish seeds were produced. A total of 128 Fishermen
Cooperative Societies are operating in the State.District wise fisheries production data when
analyzed, shows, that South District tops the list followed by West, North and the Dhalai
districts.The fishery potentials of the State needs an in depth study both in terms of capture
fisheries and Culture fisheries. No data is available for Shell fisheries.
57
Chapter
10
ENERGY
The demand for energy both for domestic and agriculture, as also for industrial sectors
increase with expanding development activities and population. Themajor share of organised
energy production is based on Thermal power or Coal fired plants in India. But the use of wood
based energy at household level take care 61.50% of the total energy use pattern in India.
While citizens have to depend variably to at least 8 different non-renewable energy sources,
alternative source of energy, renewable in nature, are always being researched to assess the
region wise potential and cost per unit of production and supply.
9.1 Energy Use in Urban & Rural Household
A survey of more than 600,000 households, of which more than 80% are from rural sector,
shows a distinct profile of energy use for cooking in Tripura. Wood based energy remains the
largest supply source with 91.52% as against 61.50% for India followed by Kerosene based
energy use, 1.72% which is however much lower than the national figure of 7.16%; this can be
attributed either to inadequate supply of kerosene or to non-affordability of prices by the
people. Use of electrical energy in these households, show a very low 0.07% as against 0.21%
in India. The energy divide between rural and urban household is glaring in terms of use of
17.39% of urban household using LPG as against 0.14% in rural sector, and 10.43% of urban
household using kerosene as against 0.27% in the rural sector; on the other hand the use of
wood based energy, as expected is much lower in urban sector (67.60%) as compared to the
rural sector (96.16%). The details of energy use pattern are given in Table-64.
Table-64: Consumption of Energy for Cooking at Household level by type of fuel, 1991
Secto Househol Kerosen Electricit Coal/cok Charcoa LPG
r
d Nos.
e
y
e
l
Wood Bioga Cow
s
dung
othe
r
Total 600,742
1.92
(7.16)
0.07
(0.31)
0.02
(0.47)
1.54
(0.77)
3.35 91.52 0.09 0.46 1.01
(7.94 (61.50 (0.49) (15.39 (2.91
)
)
)
)
Rural 492,226
0.57
0.01
0.01
1.33
0.64 96.16 0.01
0.51
1.06
Urban 108,498
10.43
0.38
0.06
2.63
17.3 67.60 0.02
9
0.21
0.77
[Note : Figures within parenthesis stand for India: Source: Housing & Amenities occ. Paper 5 of 1994, Demography,
Training and Data Dissemination Division, Census of India]
9.2 Renewable Energy
In the area of renewable energy use, small hydel power units produces a total of 1.01MW and
the solar energy is used in street lighting (335 number), home lighting (1323 numbers) and in
solar lanterns (1606 numbers). While there is no record of household based biogas plants till
1987-88, a total of 792 biogas plants have since been installed in six years from 1988-89 to
1993-94. There is no record of use of wind energy or wood based gasifier power in the state of
Tripura. Considering the vast forest resources and suitability of land for growing captive
plantation, wood based gasifier power plants, on the basis of micro planning can open a new
avenue for off-grid stand alone rural electric/ power supply. The potential for such off-grid,
stand alone wood based gasifier power plant based on supply from energy plantation with
peoples’ participation need to be intensively investigated Table-65 provides a current profile of
Renewable Energy use in Tripura and also the growth of biogas power unit at household level
between 1985-86 to 1993-1994.
58
Table- 65: Use of Renewable Energy in Tripura
Sl. No.
Source of Energy
Amount or Number
1.
Wind Energy (MW)
0.
2.
Small Hydel Power (MW)
16.0 MW
3.
Biomass Power (MW)
0
4.
Gasifier Power (MW)
0
5.
Solar Power (Nos.)
16703
A.
Street Light
460
B.
Domestic Light
1638
C.
Solar lantern
14605
[Source: Directorate of Non Conventional Energy, Govt. of Tripura, 2001]
9.3 Fuel Saving Chullah
The efforts to have better energy management is reflected in introduction of improved chullahs.
While neghbouring states of Arunachal Pradesh (15000/925), Assam 950000/490), Manipur
(15000/3155), Mizoram (15000/3000), Nagaland (10000/107) have achieved a very low level
against target set between 10000 (Nagaland) to 50000 (Assam), the State of Tripura has an
impressive record of having 11549 fuel efficient chullahs (against target of 15000) introduced
under national programme of improved chullahs during 1997-98 (MNES Annual Report, 199798). The current figure (March 2001) for improved chullah stands at 52156 showing a
significant success. Such efforts if continued, may help to reduce consumption of wood
biomass at an alarming rate.
The state of Tripura also shows some effort to introduce household level biogas plant since
1988-89. A total of 420 units have been installed within six years (Table-66) and the figure now
stands at 1005 (March 31, 2001). This shows a growth of 2.5 times in seven years period.
Table- 66 : Household Biogas Power Plant
Sl. No.
Year
Nos.
1.
1985-86
0
2.
1986-87
0
3.
1987-88
0
4.
1988-89
39
5.
1989-90
NA
6.
1990-91
75
7.
1991-92
115
8.
1992-93
122
9.
1993-94
69
Total
420
Note: The figures stands at 1005 as on 31st March 2001
[Source : Anon 1996. Indian Energy Sector, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, New Delhi p.-91]
59
9.3.1 Future Plan
In order to improve the renewable energy production and consumption, State Government
formulated an Action Plan for the year of 2001-02 and set a target for 10th Plan (2002-03 to
2006-07). The proposed target for 2001-02 given in Table-67.
Table- 67: Proposed target for Action Plan (2001-02) & (2002-03 to 2006-07)
Sl.
No.
Source of Energy
1.
Amount or Number
2001-02
2002-03 to 200607
Improved Chullaha
18,000
145,000
2.
Biogas Plant
300
1,500
3.
Solar lantern
10,000
45,000
4.
Domestic Lighting System
800
4,400
5.
Street Lighting System
300
1,500
6.
Biomass Gasifier Plant
(4x259kW)
1
7.
SPV Power Plant
(25 kW ) x 2
8.
Village Electrification through Non Conventional 20
Energy
x (1 MW) x 5
(50 kW) x 5
100
9.4 Energy Use and Hydrocarbon
The exploitation and natural gas in Tripura needs a special mentions under “Energy” related
discussion, for which details have been given under “Mineral Resources”.
However, with regard to consumption of hydrocarbon fuel, the data available for 1995-96 to
1997-98 show an upwardly mobile trend, but in a slow pace except for use of kerosene which
shows a 50% increase in three years (Table-68).
Table- 68: Consumption of Kerosene & Diesel (Thousand liters) in Tripura
Sl. No.
Type of Petroleum Product
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1.
Kerosene
23
29
32
2.
Diesel
33
36
37
3.
Petrol
6
6
6
[Source: D.C Garg. 1999. Min. of Petroleum and Natural Gas, New Delhi. In The Citizens Fifth Report, CSE, 1999, Part2]
60
9.5 Electricity & Power
9.5.1 Power Generation
Main source of power generation in the State is oil, hydro-electric and gas. Power generation in
the State heavily depends on natural gas. The 1995-96 data shows that, the relative share of
electricity generated through natural gas is about 78% of the total electricity generated in the
State. The following table shows the steady rate increase of electricity generation in the State
(Table-69).
Table -69: Power situation in Tripura (1999-2000)
Diesel
Hydel
Gas
Total
1
2
2
5
Installed capacity of Gen. Station (MW) 4.85
16.0
64.5
85.35
Electricity Generation in (MU)
61.07
251.26
314.18
No. of power generation station
Purchase
(MU)
from
1.85
Central Sector
Total electricity
consumer (MU)
sold
to
Grid 259.15
ultimate 366.34
9.5.2 Consumption of Energy
Industrial sector, domestic sector and agriculture sector are the main consumers in the State.
Out of the total consumption of power 362.43 MU during 1999-2000, as much as 37% was
used in the agricultural sector, 27% was utilized in the domestic sector, 19% in the industrial
sector and 12% in the commercial sector (Table-70).
Table –70 : Power consumption pattern in the State (in MU)
Year
Sold
to Domestic
ultimate
Sector
consumers
Commercial
Sector
Industrial
Sector
Public
Lighting
Agricultural
Sector
Others
1990- 121.07
91
33.36
14.75
24.47
3.63
39.53
2.52
1991- 140.30
92
38.88
16.66
27.76
4.16
45.63
8.47
1992- 167.61
93
47.05
20.05
30.59
4.81
55.34
9.77
1994- 193.70
95
46.81
21.65
38.69
6.78
65.81
9.00
1995- 223.66
96
53.76
26.88
44.80
11.20
73.96
13.06
1997- 315.88
98
75.81
37.96
63.18
15.80
104.24
18.95
1998- 363.12
99
97.11
43.57
69.91
7.26
134.36
10.91
1999- 362.43
2000
96.91
43.46
69.77
7.21
134.09
10.88
61
[Source: Statistical Abstract of Tripura 1996 & Economic Review, Tripura 1999-2000]
9.5.3 Supply and Demand Situation
The State is experiencing persistence power shortage due to increasing demand of electricity for
domestic sector, industrial sector and agricultural sector. During the year 1999-2000 it is
noted that the total installed capacity was 85.35 MW, total generation 314.18MU, total
purchase of power was 259.15 MU and total power sold to ultimate consumer was 366.34 MU.
Total demand of electricity in the State was 133 MW.
9.5.4 Electrification of village and towns
The available data shows that all the towns are electrified in the State while 80% of the village
in the State was electrified during the year 1999-2000. District wise data shows that South
Tripura was the most electrified villages in the State i.e. 94.40% followed by North Tripura
95%, Dhalai 73.62% and West Tripura 70.60%.
62
Chapter
11
TRANSPORT
The State of Tripura with a recorded population of 31, 91,168 (2001) in an area of 10,491.69
sq. km is yet to built up an effective system of transportation. For a total of 962 Gram
Panchayat and 16 towns/ notified area, the state has 333 km of National Highway, 454 km of
major district roads and 1463 km of other district roads and 3652 km of village roads. Besides
road communication, the railway line is currently confined to only 44.72 km in this land locked
State of North East India (Tripura at Glance, 2001). Considering the entire network of road, the
total road length stands at 15,177 km in 2000-2001. Of these, 3523 km are black topped,
2589 km are brick soled and 9065 km are earthen (Table-71).
Table-71 : Nature of Roads in the State
Sl. No.
Nature of Roads (According to surface)
Length (in km)
1.
Black topped
3523
2.
Brick soled
2589
3
Earthen
9065
Total
15,177
The number of vehicles, as per available figure is rather low in public transport system with
only 1349 vehicles for 3.1 million people; the cargo transport system shows 5484 lorries; other
categories of vehicle are reported to be 43,306 (2000-2001) (Table-72). Table-72 : District wise
number of Vehicles in the State
The impact of road transport in the air quality data of four district town (besides the
contribution from other sources) has been dealt elsewhere. However future transport network
need to be planned with systematic environmental impact study.
Indian Railways have made a proposal to extend the railway line from Kumarghat in North
Tripura to Agartala, the capital city. The 120 km long Railway line is supposed to follow Assam
Agartala road. The proposed alignment necessities permanent diversion of 365 ha of forest land
for non-forest purposes. A brief EIA report submitted by North East Frontier Railway along with
outline of the Project, in March 1998, reveals that 60% of the land to be acquired will be forest
land and point out to the possibility of:
· Landslip · Surface erosion · Slope failure · Destruction of 350 ha of forest · Noise level change.
The construction will involve cutting of 6186 RM tunnel. The EIA report however appears to be
short of details and a very sketchy rapid appraisal without any hard data.
The major concern for such project will be the impacts on Forest and Wildlife. A detailed
comprehensive four season impact assessment report is essential before any public investment
is made. The inventory of forest resources and biodiversity value of the forest area of more than
600 ha need a detailed study to arrive at a realistic cost-benefit assessment.
63
It is surprising that in spite of other alternatives the NE Railway Authority had chosen the
proposed path of alignment. The hydro geological study and structural geology of the area also
calls for detailed investigation.
The necessity of Railway network notwithstanding, public investment can only be made with
minimum damage to the environmental resources. It appears that EIA notification of 1994
under EPA, 1986 does not call for mandatory exercise for Railways, which itself appears
arbitrary. The environmental impact of Railways project elsewhere (Konkan Rly.; Panvel-Karjat
BG line in Western Rly.) have been given due consideration even without EIA stipulation.
The loss of biodiversity and degradation of natural ecosystem calls for a realistic, scientific
assessment with regard to environmental goods and services and possible cost of mitigatory
measures due to long term impact of project erroneously conceived and implemented.
Apparently, such efforts are totally lacking.
For instance, the railway authorities has submitted a statement showing the number of trees
required to be felled at four different sectors of the proposed broad gauge line. It mentions only
about plantation forestry of three species besides plantation crop like Rubber, Coffee and
Cashew nut. Obviously 650 ha of forest land does not contain only plantation forest or other
cash crops but inventory of wild flora, shrubs, herbs, bamboo, cane and associated fauna is
sadly missing. Even the plantation forest and other crops excluding Coffee will need removal of
nearly 0.15 million trees in the proposed line of alignment (Table-73).
Table- 73: Clear failing of trees of proposed Railway project
Sl.No.
Name of Trees
Number
A.
Kumarghat-Manu Sector
1.
Teak
5945
2.
Gamari & Sal
4130
3.
Rubber
7434
4.
Cashew nut
1549
B.
Manu-Ambasa Sector
1.
Teak
29868
2.
Gamari & Sal
20741
3.
Rubber
6222
4.
Coffee
??
C.
Ambasa-Teliamura Sector
1.
Teak
40715
2.
Gamari & Sal
15807
D.
Teliamura-Jirania Sector
1.
Teak
8350
2.
Gamari & Sal
2903
3.
Rubber
2714
4.
Cashew nut
2261
64
[Source: TSPCB, 2001]
Chapter
12
TOURISM
The State of Tripura is endowed with natural landscape of hilly terrain, green vegetation,
flowing rivers. The ethnic diversity of the state offers diverse lifestyle and culture. The tourism
industry in the state could well become an organised sector with significant potentiality. The
major focus of tourism in the state however was largely publicised in the area of wildlife
tourism and related fields. Due to restrictive procedure regarding entry, area permit has been a
major limiting factor for augmentation of tourism. This has since been lifted in 1995.
The infrastructural support system however remains inadequate. A master-plan for tourism
development can lead to a positive action but only in more peaceful socio-political environment.
Major thrust area for tourism may include organised group tour to selected natural scenarios
(both in the hills and in the plains, specially forest and wetland areas), ethnic culture and
handicraft, and heritage sites. The provision of accommodation and boarding at affordable
price, support of illustrated tourist literature and guidebook, maps are essential. Facilities for
camping site and trekking could positively add to the prospect of tourism development in the
state.
Special tours may be arranged to the Handlooms and Handicraft centers, Sericulture, Rubber
Plantation, Tea Plantation areas.
The Information and Tourism directorate publicizes currently 54 important tourist spots. These
includes Archaeological remains at Unakoti, Pialk Devtamura and Boxanagar, Royal Palaces,
Temples and Mosques, Wetland (Rudrasagar, Dumboor lake, M.B.B. College lake, Radha Sagar,
Krishna Sagar, Kamal Sagar, Mahadeb Dhigi, Jagannath Dhigi, Kalyan Sagar, Amar sagar,
etc.), Wildlife Sanctuaries, tea gardens (Deawanbari in North Tripura) and one Rubber
plantation (Pacharthai in North Tripura). Some of these are listed below (Table-74):
Table-74 : Tourists spots in Tripura
A.
Wildlife Sanctuaries
1.
Sipahijala Wildlife Sanctuaries
West Tripura
2.
Rowa Wildlife Sanctuaries
North Tripura
3.
Trishna Wildlife Sanctuaries
South Tripura
B.
Lakes
4.
Bramha Kunda lake
West Tripura
5.
M.B.B. College lake
West Tripura
6.
Radha Sagar
West Tripura
7.
Krishna Sagar
West Tripura
8.
Rudra Sagar
West Tripura
9.
Sipahijala lake
West Tripura
10.
Kalyan Sagar, Mahadeb Dighi
West Tripura
11.
Jagannath Dighi, Amar sagar
South Tripura
65
12.
Kamal Sagar
West Tripura
13.
Dumboor Lake
South Tripura
C.
Palaces
14.
Neelmahal
West Tripura
15.
Vijantha Palace
West Tripura
16.
Kunjaban Palace
West Tripura
D.
Temples
17.
Jagannath Temple
West Tripura
18.
Uma Maheswari Temple
West Tripura
19.
Buddha Bihar
North Tripura
20.
Bhubaneshwari Temple
South Tripura
21.
Laxminarayan temple
West Tripura
22.
Durga temple
West Tripura
23.
Benu ban Bihar
West Tripura
24.
Shiba temple
West Tripura
25.
Kasba temple
West Tripura
26.
Tripureswari temple
West Tripura
27.
Gunabati group of temple
South Tripura
28.
Mahadeb Bari
South Tripura
29.
Buddha temple
South Tripura
The current status of the government sponsored facilities vis-à-vis total number of tourists
visiting the State could be seen in Table-75 and Table-76.
Table-75 : Facilities for Tourism under Public Sector
Sl. No.
Tourist facilities
Number
Beds
1.
Tourist Lodges
8
176
2.
Tourist Cottages
2
12
3.
Yatri Nitas
2
64
4.
Yatrika
2
28
5.
Pantha Niwas
6
42
[Source: Directorate of Economics and Statistics, 1998-99]
The total number of beds in the entire public sector run facilities is 322. In addition another 40
beds are going to be commissioned very soon at different tourist centers. The number of
tourists could indicate the extent of increasing demand even at the present level.
Table-76 : Tourist number in Tripura
Year
Domestic
Foreign
Total
1996-97
2,02,659
192
2,02,851
1997-98
2,36,119
806
2,36,925
1998-99
2,37,804
1194
2,38,998
1999-2000
2,40,036
1353
2,41,389
66
2000-2001
2,42,036
1353
2,43,389
April,01 to June,01
32,021
27
32,048
[Source: Dept. of Information, Culture Affairs and Tourism, Govt. of Tripura, Agratala]
An upwardly mobile trend of tourism is clearly observed even in disturbed socio-political
condition of the state. To cater to need of the visiting tourists one tourist information centre at
Kolkata and Tourist Information Counter at Agartala and Kolkata Airport are functioning. In
addition tourist information are available for the intending tourist from Tripura Bhawan at New
Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati. Tourist informative materials are being published, tourism
festivals are also being organised in the State to attract the attention of the visiting tourists. A
separate Web Site has also been launched for propagation of tourism products. Aggressive and
sustained efforts for marketing of tourism products are required.
One of the major limitations for promotion of tourism appears to be the cost of travel from
Calcutta. Though tourism has been declared as “Industry” in the State but private
entrepreneurs are yet to actively associate themselves in the travel trade, which is required to
be persuaded. Scope for group tourism and package may offer a better deal. At present package
and conducted tours are being organised regularly by the Tourism Department to get the desire
result.
To overcome the impediment of transport communication air communication between KolkataAgartala, Agartala-Guwahati, Agartala-New Delhi are required to be increased. The Airport in
Kailashahar, North Tripura District required to be upgraded and make functional with
immediate effect, so that small aricraft can operate and connect the Nprth Eastern State with
Agartala. In addition at least one flight in a week in between Dhaka- Agartala be introduced to
get foreign tourists from Bangladesh. If a Regional Tourist circuits is introduced involving
Bangladesh, North Eastern States including Tripura, Bagdogra, Darjeeling, Sikkim, Nepal and
Bhutan is introduced then the tourism scenario in Tripura would get a tremendous boost for
achieving socio-economic development through its multi plied effect.
Ecotourism to Tripura can be efficiently planned, specially under guided programme both for
promotion of tourism and conservation of environment through non-consumptive practices.
Carrying Capacity & Environmental Implication of Tourism
The tourist data shows that steady increase of number of tourist visited in the State. This
figure shows that the State has a prospect of tourism growth. The environmental implication of
the further growth of tourism industry in the State, however need to be understand the
following parameters:





Increased pressure on the carrying capacity of the ecosystem in each tourist locality.
Increased transport and construction lead to large scale deforestation and land use
change.
Increased tourist flow leads to increase in solid waste dumping as well as depletion of
water and fuel resources.
Flow of tourists to ecologically sensitive areas lead to destruction of rare and
endangered flora and fauna due to trampling, killing, destruction of breeding habitat.
Noise pollution from vehicle, water pollution, vehicular emission, untreated sewage and
waste, etc. will increase with additional tourist traffic.
67
Chapter
13
PEOPLE
The multiethnic population of the state shows a steady increase between 1901-2001, from a
total of only 1,73,325 (1901) to 31,91,168 (2001) indicating a growth rate of nearly 18x in 100
years as against little over 3.5x for India (Table-77). During the period an uneven growth
pattern could be seen during different decadal changes with as low as 15.74% (1991-2001) to
as high as 78% during the decadal period of 1951-1961 (Table-78 & 79). The total land area of
Tripura is only 0.4% of the total Indian geographical area which is now inhabited by 4.3% of
Indian population. Such man land ratio obviously led to significant pressure on natural
resources. Sex ratio calculated by number of female for 1000 male stands at 945 as against
national figure of 933. Of the total population of Tripura in 1991, 451,116 persons belong to
schedule caste and 853,345 persons belong to schedule tribe, thereby making a total of
13,04461 persons of SC & ST categories, representing little more than 47 percent of the
population of State (Table-81), the national figure for the same stands at only 10.3 percent
(Figures for 2001 are not yet available).
An analysis of rural and urban population (1991) including sex ratio reveal that while 51.90%
of total population are male as against 48.10% of females with a sex ratio of 10.00 : 9.26, the
urban male and females ratio stand at 10.00 : 8.93 and rural sex ratio stands at 10.00 : 9.38
at national level (Table-80). The urban male population of Tripura (1991) is estimated at
51.07% as against female population at 48.93% thereby making the sex ration of 10.00 : 8.93;
even for rural sex ratio, Tripura scores little higher than national average of 10.00 : 9.83.
It is also to be noted that of the total population of the state, more than 18 percent belong to
the age group of 0-6, as per 1991 census report (Table-82); this is decidedly higher than
national average of 16 percent, thereby representing a higher percentage of young population
by 2010 looking for employment opportunities.
Table-77 : Overall Population Status in the State and India
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Population
Decadal Growth
Density
Sex Ratio
Literacy 2001
Tripura
India
Persons
3191168
1027015247
Males
1636138
531277078
Females
1555030
495738169
1981-1991
34.30
23.86
1991-2001
15.74
21.34
1991
263
267
2001
304
324
1991
945
927
2001
950
933
Persons
73.66
65.38
68
Males
81.47
75.85
Females
65.41
54.16
Table -78 : Population Distribution, Percentage decadal growth rate, Sex-ratio Population
density Literacy rate for State and Districts
Sl. State/distri Population 2001
No ct
.
Person Males
s
Percentage
decadal
growth
rate
Sex-ratio Population
Literacy
(No.
of density/sq.k rate
females
m
per 1000
males)
Female 1981 1991 199 200 1991
s
-91 -01 1
1
200 199
1
1
200
1
Tripura
319116 163613 155503 34.3 15.7 945 950 263
8
8
0
0
4
304 49.6 65.4
5
1
1.
West
Tripura
153053 783825 746706 32.5 18.2 944 953 427
1
3
9
505 55.1 70.2
5
4
2.
South
Tripura
762565 391179 371386 40.3 7.44 951 949 229
0
243 39.7 60.7
5
5
3.
Dhalai
307417 158480 148937 33.6 10.7 931 940 125
9
9
139 NA
4.
North
Tripura
590655 302654 288001 30.8 26.4 943 952 222
6
4
281 50.3 65.7
1
3
51.5
7
Table- 79 : Growth in Total, Rural, and Urban Population (1901-2001)
Census year
Total Population
Rural Population
Urban Population
Total
Percentage
Total
Percentage
1901
173325
166910
96.30
6415
3.70
1911
229613
222782
97.02
6831
2.98
1921
304437
296694
97.46
7743
2.54
1931
382450
372870
97.50
9580
2.50
1941
513010
495317
96.55
17693
3.45
1951
639029
596343
93.30
42595
6.70
1961
1142005
1039008
90.98
102997
9.02
1971
1556342
1393982
89.57
162360
10.43
1981
2053058
1827490
89.00
225568
11.00
1991
2757205
2335484
84.70
421721
15.30
2001*
3191168
2648074
82.98
543094
17.02
69
[Source: Anon. 1993. Final Population Totals. Brief Analysis of Primary Census, Series-1, Paper-2 of 1992. Register
General of Census Commissioner, Census of India, Govt. of India; * = Provisional Figure]
Table – 80 : Total, Rural, Urban Population including Sex ratio (1991)
Population
Male
Female
Sex Ratio
Census Year 1991
Total
2757205
1417930 (51.42%)
1339275 (48.58%)
945
Rural
2335484
1202529 (51.48%)
1132995 (48.52%)
942
Urban
421721
215410 (51.08%)
206320 (48.92%)
958
Census Year 2001
Total
3191168
1636138 (51.27%)
1555030 (48.73%)
950
Rural
2648074
1359288 (51.33%)
1288786 (48.67%)
948
Urban
543094
276850 (50.98%)
266244 (49.02%)
961
[Source: Source: Anon. 1993. Final Population Totals. Census India, Series-1, Paper-2 of 1992. Register General of
Census Commissioner, Census of India, Govt. of India & Census of India, Govt. of India, 2001]
70
Table-81 : Schedule Caste & Schedule Tribe population (1991)
Schedule Caste
Schedule Tribe
Male
Female
Male
Female
Total
5414599
5297667
293012
281182
Rural
4259370
4168670
257853
247355
Urban
1155229
1128997
35159
33827
[Source : Anon. 1993. Final Population totals. Census of India. Series 1, Paper 2 of 1992 p.190-197]
Table- 82 : Total Population & sex ratio in the age group of 0-6 years
Combined
Male
Female
Sex Ratio
Census Year 1991
Total
497122
252724
244398
967
Rural
440461
223798
216663
968
Urban
56661
28926
27735
959
Census Year 2001
Total
427012
216244
210768
975
Rural
376018
190067
185951
978
Urban
50994
26177
24817
948
[Source: Anon. 1993. Final Population totals. Census of India. Series 1, Vol.11, Part 11 B(1)]
71
Table-83: State wise Projected Urban Population : 1996-2016 (1000)
Year
Male
Female
Total
1996
278
274
552
2001
350
360
710
2006
433
461
894
2011
521
569
1090
2016
608
676
1284
[Source: Anon. 1991. Population Projection for India and States, 1996-2016. Register General of India, Census of India,
Govt. of India, New Delhi]
The demographic analysis shows that of the total of 858517 workers, majority (736677) belong
to rural sector while only 121998 belong to urban workers’ class. The male-female ratio of main
workers also show a highly disproportionate picture with 674,184 male workers as against
184333 and such disparities are evident in both Rural and Urban sectors but being higher in
the rural sectors. In case of marginal workers, however, female workers take majority share
with 54579 out of 56654 total marginal workers and rural sector employment as many as
47342 of the total female marginal workers. The high rate of unemployment is evident in the
figures of total non-workers 1898688 of which 1154942 are females, majority being from rural
sector (967753) (Table-84).
The foregoing population profile in terms of total number, decadal changes, distribution in
urban-rural segment, sex ratio and employment can further be extended to the issue of
population and poverty.
Table –84 : Economic activity : Total workers & non-workers/sex/urban/rural sector
Total
Number
Workers
Total
Male
of Number
workers
Femal Total
e
of
Male
Main Number
of Non workers
Marginal workers
Femal Tota Mal Femal Total
e
l
e
e
Male
Femal
e
Total 858517 674184 184333 802063 666287 135776 5645 789
4
7
48557
189868 743796 115495
8
2
Rural 736677 571475 165202 682098 564238 117860 5437 723
9
7
47342
159808 631054 967753
7
Urba 12184 10270 19113 11986 10204 17916 1875 660 1215
n
0
9
1
5
9
29988 11269 18718
1
2
9
[Anon. 1993. Final Population totals. Series 1, paper 2 of 1992. P. 106-113. Census of India]
72
Since, poverty and increasing population are considered as prime driving forces for degradation
of natural resources, a look at the same area can be given. The figures showing people below
poverty line as per 1993-94 data indicate that as many as 11.41 lakh people or 45.01 percent
of rural population live below the poverty line; while in urban sector the respective figure
stands at 0,38 lakhs or 7.73%; the combined figure therefore stands at 11.79 lakhs people or
39.01% of the population living below the poverty line (Table-85). However the State
Government of Tripura provided a figure of 66.81% of rural families living below the poverty
line (Table-86).
Table -85 : Population below Poverty Line
Rural
Urban
Combined
Number (Lakh) Percentage Number (Lakh) Percentage Number (Lakh) Percentage
Tripura 11.41
45.01
0.38
7.73
11.79
39.01*
India
37.27
-
32.36
-
35.97
-
[Source: Anon. 1998. Estimation of Poverty, p. 14, Planning Commission, Govt. of India, New Delhi * = according to the
Govt. of Tripura the figures stands at 66.81% ]
73
Table –86 : Families Below Poverty Line in the State
Name
of
District
the No.
of
Families
Rural No. of Rural of families Percentage
living BPL
living BPL
West Tripura
277294
174763
63.02%
North Tripura
104802
68334
65.20%
South Tripura
148181
108214
73.02%
Dhalai
65120
46487
71.38%
Total
595397
397798
66.81%
of
families
[Source: Govt. of Tripura]
Population on the March
The Central Statistical Organisation in a report dated 1999 (Selected Socio-Economic
Statistics, India 1999) provided a likely population growth for Tripura between 1991 and 1999
(in million) projecting a figure of 3.7 million in 1999 (Table-87).
74
Table-87: Population on the March
Year
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
Population
2.9
3.0
3.1
3.2
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
It shows a steady growth of population at 0.10 million per year. Actually the provisional data of
2001 Census shows a figure of nearly 3.2 million thereby making the above projection
invalid.The census data of 1951 to 1991 when analysed show a steady increase of density of
population from 61 person per sq. km (1951) to 304 person per sq. km (2001) i.e. more than
5.0x in 50 years.
A total of 19 tribal groups form an important component of people of Tripura. Out of 19
Schedule Tribes Tripuri, Riang, Jamatia, Chakma and Halam tribes occupy the first five
position Table-88
Table-88 : Tribal population by Tribes, percentage of total population and male/ female
(1981 census)
Sl. No.
Tribes
Total
Percentage
Male
Female
1.
Bill
838
0.40
450
388
2.
Bhutia
22
0.00
14
8
3.
Chaimal
18
0.00
11
7
4.
Chakma
34799
1.69
17966
16833
5.
Garo
7297
0.36
3632
3665
6.
Halam
28969
1.41
14666
14303
7.
Jamatia
44501
2.17
22368
22133
8.
Khasia
457
0.02
235
222
9.
Kuki
5501
0.87
3831
2970
10.
Lepcha
106
0.01
49
7
11.
Lushai
3734
0.18
1936
1798
12.
Naga
18231
0.89
9389
8842
13.
Munda
7993
0.39
4190
3803
14.
Noatia
7181
0.35
3695
3486
15.
Orang
5217
0.25
2670
2547
16.
Riang
84005
4.09
42973
40132
17.
Santal
2725
0.13
1428
1297
18.
Tripuri
330872
16.12
168334
210923
19.
Uchai
1306
0.06
670
636
Total
583920
28.44
286308
244146
75
The tribal population in India, in general, depends heavily on the natural resource based
economy. The State of Tripura provided tribal sub-plan allocation since 5th Five Year Plan and
quantified allocation proportionate to the percentage of Tribal population. The development
thrust include “Economic Development” including Agriculture, Horticulture, Soil Conservation,
Handloom & Handicraft, improvement of Jhum cultivation practices and rehabilitation of
Jhumias; the “Social Development” programme include Health, Nutrition and Education
sectors. It is evident that the sectors are closely inter-linked with the environment
management. Detailed information on the scheme wise targets and achievement on the basis of
ground- truth verification may provide a realistic assessment of the impact of investment (31%)
on these “Ecosystem People”.
In addition to the specific programmes under general adminastration, additional support for
Tribal development is being provided under Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council
(TTADC) set up January 1992 under 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India, latter shifted
under 6th Schedule to entrust additional power and responsibilities from April 1st 1985. And
analysis of the programme show major activities under forestry, fisheries, rural development,
school education, horticulture and public health related work. Exact mechanism of
coordination between the sub-plan and TTADC programme related to environment and natural
resource management is not apparent from the official publication.
76
Chapter
14
HEALTH
Health and environment have been interlinked in more than one area of study. While human
development index, as adopted by UNDP, consider non-economic indicators to assess
development, health indicators can clearly indicate the quality of air, water, sanitation, noise
vis-a-vis state of human health.
13.1 Health Care Facility
The State of Tripura, till date, seems to suffer significantly in terms of health care delivery
system. The available data of 1999-2000, published by Directorate of Economics and Statistics
in Tripura shows that total number of Public Health Clinic is only 59, total number of Hospitals
28 and dispensaries 621. While these figures have improved between 1985-2000 and may not
sound alarming, the figures for available number of doctors (905), nurses (920) and midwives
(95) shows the extreme inadequacy of health care delivery. While Indian figure for doctors
stands at 48 per 100,000 persons, for nurses 58 per 100,000 persons and midwives 30 per
100,000 persons, the respective figures for Tripura stands at 32, 32.9 and 3.6 per 100,000
persons (Table-89).
Table- 89 : Health Care System 1999-2000
Year
No.
PHC
of No.
Hospitals
of No.
Dispensaries
of No.
Doctors
of No.
Nurses
of No.
Midwives
1985 * 39
12
NA
NA
NA
NA
1999** 68
24
538
905
920
95
of
[Source: *State of Environment in Tripura Report 1989. **Directorate of Economics & Statistics and *** Figures in
parenthesis for the year 1999 supplied by Directorate of Health, Govt. of Tripura]
13.2 Birth Rate & Death Rate
The data with regard to the estimated birth and death rate however shows a better trend in
Tripura in spite of inadequacy of heath care delivery system. In rural areas, the estimated
number of birth rate stands at 18.2 and death rate at 6.1 per 1000 persons, but in urban area
the corresponding figure stands at 14.8 and 5.4 respectively. The combined figure of rural and
urban sector stands at 17.6 and 6.1 as against All India figure of 28.7 and 9.2 (Table-90).
Table- 90 : Estimated Live Birth rate and Death rate (per 1000 persons)
Sector
Birth Rate
Death Rate
Tripura
India
Tripura
India
Combined
17.6
28.7
6.1
9.2
Rural
18.2
30.4
6.2
10.6
Urban
14.8
23.5
5.4
5.7
[Source: Office of the Register General, India, 1999]
77
The infant mortality rate for rural and urban sector stands at 50 and 39 respectively (per 1000
persons) and combined figure stand at 49; the corresponding figure for Indian average is much
higher at 77,45 and 72 respectively (Table-91)
Table- 91 : Infant Mortality rate in Tripura and India (per 1000)
State/Country
Rural
Urban
Combined
Tripura
50
39
49 (42)*
India
77
45
72
[Source: CSO from Dept. of Family Welfare, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 1998, * Figure within parenthesis
denote 1999 data supplied by supplied by Directorate of Health, Govt. of Tripura]
13.3 Occupational Health Hazard
The data on occupational health hazard could be of vital importance in assessing impact on
health of different developmental sectors. Unfortunately no such data are available. Recent
efforts of at least one large enterprise, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) to assess the risk and
disaster management in three of the IOC operational site in North Tripura (as a part of
assessment of 11 sites in North East India) by the Calcutta based Centre for Study of Man and
Environment may provide a possible projection of any accidental disaster related health
hazard.
The total registered factories in Tripura, as per Directorate of Economics and Statistics
handbook, (1999-2000) stand at 2582 of which 1349 factories are recorded as Notified
factories; total workers employed in 2582 registered factories number 30,012. Obviously
categorization of operation of these factories in Red, Orange and Green categories and regular
check up by Health Inspectors from State Labour Department could provide indicative data on
possible occupational health hazards.
Among the industries and allied activities in the State posing substantial health hazard
including death are Ferrous Metallurgical, Power generating, Acids & alkalis Drugs &
Pharmaceutical, Distilleries & Breweries, Paints & Pigment, Leather Tanning, Synthetic Resin
and Plastic, Highly Flammable Liquid & Gases and Lead. Number of hazardous units is 28
including 11 power-generating units.
13.4 General Health Profile
The general disease profile of the State over last 15 years up to (1999-2000) clearly indicates
highest incidence of diarrhea followed by malaria. The comparable data for 1985-86 and 19992000 for bronchial diseases and cancer are not available but the bronchial disease figure of 1,
18,787 in 1997 and cancer related figure of 17,874 in 1999-2000 calls for serious concern.
While separate data are available for cholera (16,186) and tuberculosis (1435) for the year
1985; nil data for cholera for subsequent years appear questionable; for tuberculosis the data
for 1999-2000 stands at 463 including indoor and outdoor patients.
Current data on typhoid and measles may call for better immunization programme. Of the
other disease incidences of leprosy, viral hepatitis and polio appear to be infrequent. Table-92
Provide a decadal change profile between 1985 to 1993-94 and also provide the latest health
data including for some additional diseases.
78
Table- 92 : Disease Profile of Tripura
Disease Category
1985 (1)
1993-94 (2)
No. of Cases
No. of Death
No. of Cases
No. of Death
T.B.
1435
30
0
0
Leprosy
N.A.
N.A.
208
0
Malaria
N.A.
N.A.
11,680
16
Japanese Encephalitis
58
0
0
0
Filaria
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.
Poliomyelitis
75
1
8
0
Viral Hepatitis
277
8
139
8
Cholera/Gastroenteric
16,186
22
0
0
Dysentery/Diarrhea
50,668
38
92,653
71
[Source: (1) State of Environment in Tripura, 1989 p. 99 (2) Health Information of India,
Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, DGHS Min. of Health & Family Planning, New Delhi]
The prevalence of dysentery appear on the rise when compared with the past figure of 1985
and that of 1993-94 and 1999-2000; during 1985, 2.4% of the population was suffering from
this disease, while in 1993-94, more than 3.3% of the population are reported to have been
affected by this water borne disease; the figure stands at 3% in 1999-2000. Data for 1998 on
the total morbidity supplied by Directorate of Health indicate 3, 72,436 indoor patients and
95,760 outdoor patients.
Improvement of the drinking water quality becomes an urgent necessity; to offer remedial
measure; treatment of water and improvement of distribution system become essential.
13.5 Family Health
Tripura, as per National Family Health Survey (1993) has experienced considerable decline in
the fertility in recent decade. During 1990-92, the total fertility rate (TFR) in the State was 2.7
children per woman, 21 percent lower than the national average. The stabilization of
population can have a positive effect of more women processing family planning; in Tripura 56
percent of currently married women are reported to resort to such practice but only 29 percent
adopt modern methods (National Family Health Survey Summary Report, Tripura, 1993).
On the other hand infant mortality rate remains high in Tripura, 1 in 13 children dying before
they reach the age of one and 1 in 10 children dies before reaching age of five. This figure goes
against Human Development programme and demands a better health care service to reduce
infant and child mortality. The picture becomes clearer from the fact that for 35 percent births
mother do not get antenatal care. Most babies (69 percent) are delivers at home and only 33
percent of deliveries are attended by nurses and midwives. This can be corroborated with
extremely inadequate figure for such categories of health care personnel as mentioned earlier.
Coming back to UNDP’s guideline to assess Human Development, nearly half of the children
being underweight and 46 percent remaining stunted, show an alarming nutritional
deficiencies.
79
While child Survival and Safe Motherhood programme (CSSM) adopted in the 8th Five Year
Plan (1992-97) targeted to lower an infant mortality rate of 50 per 1000 live births, the figure
for Tripura during 1988-92 was 76 per 1000 live births. Similarly the target for under five
mortality was fixed at 70 per 1000, the figure for Tripura during 1988-92 stood at 105 per
1000. The crude death rate target of 9 per 1000 population was never achieved- the figure
stood at 12 per 1000 in 1991-92. The biggest lapses can be noted in the services for antenatal
case and deliveries during pregnancies; against a set target of 100 percent coverage for both,
the services, women in Tripura received 65 percent antenatal care and 33 percent delivery
related services during 1988-92. The population stabilization can be better achieved with 75
percent couple protection rate as against 56 percent recorded in Tripura.
However, the reader may refer back to the Table-91 showing the figure of 1999 regarding infant
mortality rate per 1000; it shows a definite improvement from 1992 period (76 per 1000 to 49
per 1000). The recent figure for crude birth and death rate per 1000 (as given earlier) also
indicates a significant change in the trend.
13.6 Family Welfare
Four different methods of family programmes are being carried out by Govt. of Tripura. The
data available for the year 1995-96 to 2000-2001, show that in each of the four programmes
namely (i) sterilisation, (ii) IUD, (iii) C.C. Users and (iv) Oral pill users, percentage of
achievements against target are declining. While in 1995-96 97% was achieved in sterilisation
programme, 151% was achieved in IUD programme and 543% was achieved in oral pill
programme, the respective figure for the year 2000-2001 stands at 61%, 81%, and 57%. Even
for C.C. users the achievement of 97% of 1998-99 decline to 36% in 2000-2001. As such the
implementation of family welfare programme needs a serious review before the initiation of
10th Five Year Plan.
Besides these, the State Government has so far been able to implement number of family
welfare programme under National Programme Schemes till 1999-2000. These are : National
Family Welfare Programme, National Malaria Eradication Programme, National Programmes for
Control of Blindness, National Tuberculosis Control Programmes, National Iodine Deficiency
Programmes, National AIDS Control Programmes, National cancer Control Programmes,
Universal Immunisation Programmes, Oral Rehydration Therapy Schemes, National Leprosy
Eradication Programmes, Special School Health Check-up Schemes for Primary Children, Pulse
Polio Immunisation Programmes, Village Health Guide Schemes, Prevention of Food
Adulteration Act and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control Programmes.
No data is available on the targeted programme, actual achievements and slippages with regard
to the above named projects.
80
Chapter
15
HABITAT
The issues of habitat are considered the vital indicators for assessing the living condition of
human population in an identified geographical area. The State of Tripura, remains
predominantly rural with 84.70% population living in the rural sector.
The rural population of Tripura is distributed over census 856 villages in four districts. The
village size, classified on the basis of basis of population indicate that largest number of
villages (274) have 2000-4999 population and only 3 villages have more than 10,000
population. About 265 villages have less than 1000 population.
A total of 4,39,101 households are identified in these 856 villages of the state; more than 80%
of these households are located in ”Kutcha” houses; of the kutcha houses 42.85% remain nonserviceable. The living condition of vast majority of human population in Tripura remains much
below the national average both in terms of percentage of kutcha houses (33.76%) and
percentage of nonserviceable kutcha houses (9.24%). The number of village classified by
population (1981) and number of rural households and classification of rural households are
given in Table -93 and Table-94.
Table-93: Number of village classified by Population size in Tripura: 1981
1.
Total Number of Inhabited Village
856
2.
Total Rural Population
1,827,490
3.
Average Population per Village
2,135
4.
Village wise Population
<200
34
200-499
91
500-999
140
1000-1999
253
2000-4999
274
5000-9999
56
>10000
3
[Source: Census of India, 1981]
Table- 94 : Number of Rural Households and percentage occupying Pucca, Semi Pucca
and Kucha houses, 1991
Total Number Percentage of various type of houses
Kutcha%
Pucca
Semi- Pucca
Kutcha
Servicable Non-Servicable
Tripura 439,101
1.91
17.35
80.74
37.89
42.85
India
30.59
35.65
33.76
24.52
9.24
111,539,448
[Source: Anon, 1995. Housing and Amenities for Districts, cities and Towns. Occ. Paper 5 of 1994. Demography,
Training and Data Dissemination Division. Census of India]
With regard to the service sector, only 30.60% of the total housing have access to safe drinking
water in the state of Tripura as against national average of 55.34%. This again reflects the
81
present status of living condition of more than 80% of the people of state remain much below
the desired level.
In terms of toilet facilities, 62.43% of rural households in Tripura are reported to have access
to such facilities as against Indian average of 9.48%; if this data is authenticated, Tripura
stands second to Lakshadweep.
The urban centers of the State can be classified into 6 categories viz. Class I (100,000 and
above), II (50,000-99,999), III (20,000-49,999), IV (10,000-19,999), V (5,000-9,999) and VI (less
than 5,000). The census data of 1991 show that a total of 18 urban centers are known from
Tripura, of which only one belongs to class I category (Agartala) and the largest number (7)
belong to class II categories. Census data of 2001 show that total number of urban centers
have increased to 23, of which West Tripura district has the largest number of urban centers
i.e. 13 followed by South and North and Dhalai district. (Table-95).
Table-95: Number of Urban Centers by size Class
Total Number
Number of Urban Centers by size Class
Class I Class II
Class III
Class IV
Class V
Class VI
India
3696
300
345
947
1167
740
197
Tripura (1991)
18
1
0
4
7
4
2
Tripura (2001)
23
1
0
6
8
8
0
West
13
1
0
3
5
4
0
South
4
0
0
1
2
1
0
Dhalai
3
0
0
0
0
3
0
North
3
0
0
2
1
0
0
[Source: Census of India, 1991 & Census of India, 2001, Govt. of India]
The rural and urban populations breakup of the State shows that West Tripura district has the
highest population in both the categories while Dhalai district reflects the lowest in the State
(Table-96).
Table- 96 : District wise rural & urban population and urban Centre
District/State Rural
Population
Urban
Population
Total
Population
Percentage
population
West Tripura
4,07,501
15,30,531
26.62%
South Tripura 7,08,498
54,067
7,62,565
7.09%
Dhalai
2,88,546
18,871
3,07,417
6.14%
North Tripura 5,28,000
62,655
5,90,655
10.61%
11,23,030
of
Urban
[Source: Census of India, 2001, Govt. of India]
In 1991, of the total urban population of 0.42 million, the number and percentage of people
living in the slum were 0.07 million and 17.6% respectively, the latter figure being much lower
than the national average of 21.21%. The respective figures for 2001 are not available till date.
82
In 1991, of the 85,054 households in urban Tripura, 24.02% lived in Pucca houses, the rest in
semi pucca (38.06%) and Kutcha houses (37.42%); this shows that urban living condition
remained much below the national average (Table-97 & 98); of the total population only 5.5%
people have pucca houses. The respective figure for 2001 however are not available till date.
Table-97: Urban Housing in Tripura and India
Percentage of various type of houses
Kutcha%
Pucca
Semi- Pucca
Kutcha
Servicable
Non-Servicable
Tripura
24.02
38.06
37.92
6.68
2.88
India
72.75
17.69
9.56
12.04
25.89
[Source: Census of India 1991]
Table-98 : Rural and Urban Housing (Combined) in Tripura and in India
Percentage of various type of houses
Pucca
Semi-Pucca
Kuncha
Tripura
5.50
20.71
73.79
India
41.61
30.95
27.44
[Source: Housing and Amenities office of the Register general of Census Commission, 1995]
In terms of accessibility to safe drinking water, 71.12% people are reported to have the access
as against national average of 81.38%. Taking urban and rural population together only
37.18% people of Tripura have access to safe drinking water as against 62.30% on a national
average (Table-99).
Table-99 : Percentage of household with access to safe drinking water (Rural –Urban
combined)
Urban
Rural
Total
Tripura
71.12
30.60
37.18
India
81.38
55.34
62.30
[Source: Housing and Amenities Occ. Paper 5, office of the Register general of Census Commission, 1995]
The livelihood pattern of urban population, like the rural ones, demands a clean sanitation
system for better environment. While 63.85% of Indian urban population have toilet facilities,
the figure for the State of Tripura stand at 96.32%; taken together with the rural population,
the total percentage of population with toilet facilities stands at 67.93% as against 23.70% for
India. Tripura is one of the four amongst all Indian States and Union Territories (in 1991) with
60% and above people having toilet facilities, the others being Mizoram (70.73%) Chandigar
(70.80%), Delhi (63.38%) and Lakshadweep (71.02%) [Source: Office of the Register general of
Census Commission, 1995]. It may be noted that a study conducted by National Institute of
Urban Affairs (1991) on 398 urban household, shows that 65% of population have private toilet
and 22% have community toilet facilities, making it 87% instead of 96.32% mentioned earlier.
83
Chapter
16
ENVIRONMENT QUALITY
The environmental quality is based on three physical parameters viz. Air quality, Water quality
and Noise level. The biological parameters have been dealt elsewhere (Agriculture, Biodiversity).
Primary data were collected in the months of March to June 2001. Ambient air quality was
studied at 27 fixed stations covering all the four districts of Tripura. A total 19 Ground water
samples were collected of which 17 were from Deep tube well. A total of 14 Surface Water
samples were collected of which 12 were from streams and rivers and 2 were from wetlands; 3
locations were studied in West District for effluent water quality. The Tripura State Pollution
Control Board provided data for water quality and air quality generated during months of
October -November 1997 which have been utilised wherever possible, to compare with the data
set of 2001.
15.1 Air Quality
The urban centers in the State have witnessed a significant increase in the number of
industries in the small and medium sectors and also in the number of vehicles during 19902000. As a result, there has been a significant change in the quality of air in most of the urban
centers. The quality of air is determined in terms of identified parameters such as Suspended
Particulate Matter (SPM), Sulfur dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen dioxide (NO2), Carbon mono-oxide
(CO), Lead (Pb), Respiratory Particulate Matter (RPM), etc. The Central Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) notified National Ambient Air Quality Standard (April, 1994) with regard to SPM, SO2,
NO2, CO, Pb, RPM for Industrial area, Residential, Rural & other areas and for Sensitive areas.
While the National Ambient Air quality Standards are applicable to annual arithmetic mean of
104 measurements in a year, taking twice a week 24 hourly at uniform interval, the present
study is based only on one season data, pre-monsoon 2001 and post-monsoon 1997.
15.1.1 Available Data Set
First available data on air quality monitoring in the State dates back to the Capital City of
Agartala in December 1986. Subsequently the Tripura State Pollution Control Board monitored
air quality in forty-one selected stations during October-November 1997. The present study as
already mentioned was carried out in twenty-seven selected stations during March-June 2001.
An attempt has been made to compare the past data from the same location with the current
data set.
15.1.2 District Wise Air Quality
North Tripura District
No systematic information is available to compare the status of air quality in the district.
However, four stations within the district are common in the 2nd and 3rd survey but the
seasons are different. The locations and results of the monitoring stations are given in Table102.
Table-102 : Air Quality data in 4 comparing sampling stations
Location
SPM (mg/m3)
RPM (mg/m3)
SO2 (mg/m3)
NOx (mg/m3)
Pb (mg/m3)
1997
2001
1997
2001
1997
2001
1997
2001
1997 2001
Kumarghat
88.88
284.63 NA
78.70
06.52
7.13
17.15
34.83
NA
0.47
Pencharthal
164.68 105.80 NA
41.10
12.05
3.67
26.05
34.83
NA
0.51
Panisagar
198.50 104.13 NA
42.87
15.84
3.53
31.26
38.37
NA
0.49
Kailashahar
79.30
81.90
8.15
2.17
16.77
65.17
BDL
0.31
129.77 NA
84
All the four sampling sites were located at the commercial areas residential area. Changes in
the quality of air with regard to the parameters are given below.
Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM)
The average SPM concentration at North Tripura district was 132.84 mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 79.30mg/m3 (Kailashahar) and 198.50mg/m3 (Pencharthal); it has now
increased to 156.08mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 104.13mg/m3 (Panisagar) and
284.63mg/m3 (Kumarghat). However a comparison with National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both the data are within the permissible
limit prescribed for 24 hourly values (200mg/m3)
Respirable Particulate Matter (RPM)
No systematic date is available to compare the status of RPM in the district. But the present
data show that average concentration of RPM within the limit of National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) for residential area (100mg/m3).
Nitrogen Oxides (NOx)
The average NOx concentration at North Tripura district was 22.81mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 16.77mg/m3 (Kailashahar) and 31.26mg/m3 (Panisagar), it has now increase to
43.30mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 38.83mg/m3 (Kumarghat) and 61.17mg/m3
(Kailashahar). Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of NOx with National Ambient
Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are within the limit
(80mg/m3).
Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)
The average SO2 concentration at North Tripura district was 10.64mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 6.52mg/m3 (Kumarghat) and 15.84mg/m3 (Panisagar), it has now decreased to
3.86mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 2.17mg/m3 (Kailashahar) and 7.13mg/m3
(Kumarghat). Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of SO2 with National Ambient Air
Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are within the limit
(80mg/m3).
Lead (Pb)
No systematic date is available to compare the status of lead (Pb) in the district. But the
present data show that average concentration of Pb (0.45) lies within the limit of National
Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area (1.5mg/m3).
South Tripura District
Only five stations within the district are common in the 2nd and 3rd survey to compare the
status of air quality. All the five stations were located in commercial areas, which was located
near to the residential areas. The location and result of the monitoring stations is given in
Table-103.
85
Location
SPM (mg/m3) RPM (mg/m3) SO2 (mg/m3) NOx (mg/m3) Pb (mg/m3)
1997
Udaipur Town
2001
1997 2001
1997 2001 1997 2001 1997 2001
460.92 205.27 NA
86.70
17.52 3.13
38.56 32.53 NA
0.12
Udaipur Motor Stand 379.16 111.73 NA
51.07
17.82 4.20
37.69 27.47 NA
0.06
Amarpur
359.08 110.40 NA
47.07
08.27 3.43
23.07 49.03 NA
0.30
Santi Bazar
143.52 211.30 NA
149.27 18.02 4.90
19.56 38.47 NA
0.11
Belonia
92.25
95.17
19.56 37.90 NA
0.09
127.00 NA
07.08 4.17
Changes in the quality of air with regard to the parameters are given below.
The average SPM concentration at South Tripura district was 286.97 mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 92.25mg/m3 (Belonia) and 460.90mg/m3 (Udaipur Town); it has now decreased
to 153.14mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 110.40mg/m3 (Amarpur) and 205.27mg/m3
(Udaipur Town). A comparison with National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for
residential area revealed that the SPM level of 1997 was higher than the permissible limit, but
the SPM level of 2001 is within the permissible limit prescribed for 24 hourly values
(200mg/m3)
data show that average concentration (85.86mg/m3) of RPM within the limit of National
Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area (100mg/m3).
The average NOx concentration at South Tripura district was 27.69mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 19.56mg/m3 (Belonia) and 38.56mg/m3 (Udaipur Town), it has now decreased
to 37.08mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 32.53mg/m3 (Udaipur Town) and 49.03mg/m3
(Amarpur). Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of NOx with National Ambient Air
Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are within the limit
(80mg/m3).
The average SO2 concentration at South Tripura district was 13.74mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 7.08mg/m3 (Belonia) and 17.82mg/m3 (Udaipur Motor Stand), it has now
decreased to 3.97mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 3.13mg/m3 (Udaipur Town) and
4.90mg/m3 (Santibazar). Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of SO2 with National
Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are within the
limit (80mg/m3).
86
Lead (Pb)
West Tripura District
Only eight stations within the district are common in the 2nd and 3rd survey to compare the
status of air quality. Of which seven stations were located in commercial areas, which was
located near to the residential areas and one station is located in the industrial area which is
located near to the residential area. The location and result of the monitoring stations is given
in Table-104.
Location
SPM (mg/m3) RPM (mg/m3) SO2
(mg/m3)
1997
Agartala
Stand
Dukli
Estate*
2001
1997
2001
1997 2001 1997 2001
Motor 420.02 461.63 400.10 137.43 30.68 2.83
Industrial 149.09 84.70
Pb
(mg/m3)
1997 2001
51.38 136.47 0.36 0.61
NA
38.07
14.64 7.10
29.97 23.53
BDL
0.52
NA
20.43
12.14 9.00
30.04 86.47
BDL
0.36
Jirania 410.55 175.87 NA
45.63
18.27 6.27
49.38 86.13
BDL
0.44
Jirania –Kunjaban
JiraniaBazar
NOx
(mg/m3)
142.31 48.87
Khowai
176.95 76.17
NA
59.37
10.37 6.43
17.94 57.23
BDL
0.25
Sonamura
279.29 39.90
NA
26.67
13.76 5.80
34.81 44.70
NA
0.45
Bus 327.72 142.97 NA
34.00
18.54 5.80
39.09 65.20
BDL
0.26
325.77 78.53
38.33
17.35 5.80
30.89 56.23
BDL
0.45
Radhanagar
Stand
Bishalgarh
NA
The average SPM concentration at West Tripura district was 278.96 mg/m3 in 1997 with a
range between 142.31mg/m3 (Kunjaban) and 420.02 mg/m3 (Agartala Motor Stand); it has
now decreased to 138.58mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 39.90mg/m3 (Sonamura) and
461.63mg/m3 (Agartala Motor Stand). A comparison with National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that the SPM level of 1997 was higher than the
permissible limit, but the SPM level of 2001 is within the permissible limit prescribed for 24
hourly values (200mg/m3)
87
The average NOx concentration at West Tripura district was 35.44mg/m3 in 1997 with a range
between 17.94mg/m3 (Khowai) and 49.38mg/m3 (Jirania Bazar), it has now increased to
69.50mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 23.53mg/m3 (Dukli Industrial Estate) and
136.47mg/m3 (Agartala Motor Stand). Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of NOx
with National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are
within the limit (80mg/m3).
The average SO2 concentration at West Tripura district was 36.97mg/m3 in 1997 with a range
between 10.37mg/m3 (Khowai) and 30.68mg/m3 (Agartala Motor Stand), it has now decreased
to 6.13mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 2.83mg/m3 (Agartala Motor Stand) and
9.00mg/m3 (Kunjaban). Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of SO2 with National
Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are within the
limit (80mg/m3).
Lead (Pb)
Dhalai District
Only three stations within the district are common in the 2nd and 3rd survey to compare the
status of air quality. All the three stations were located in commercial areas, which was located
near to the residential areas. The location and result of the monitoring stations is given in
Table-105.
Location
SPM (mg/m3) RPM (mg/m3) SO2 (mg/m3) NOx (mg/m3) Pb (mg/m3)
1997
2001 1997
2001
1997
51.36
79.00 NA
34.13
05.91 3.07
13.49 30.37 DBL
0.31
Kamalpur, Salema 101.38 67.60 NA
39.77
08.62 7.43
18.22 17.87 BDL
0.38
Manu
45.13
11.79 2.60
26.15 34.17 BDL
0.38
Ambasa
162.02 98.63 NA
2001 1997
2001
1997 2001
88
The average SPM concentration at Dhalai district was 104.92 mg/m3 in 1997 with a range
between 51.36mg/m3 (Ambasa) and 162.02 mg/m3 (Manu), it has now decreased to
81.74mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 79.00mg/m3 (Ambasa) and 98.63mg/m3 (Manu).
However a comparison with National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for residential
area revealed that both the data are within the permissible limit prescribed for 24 hourly
values (200mg/m3).
The average NOx concentration at Dhalai district was 19.29mg/m3 in 1997 with a range
between 13.94mg/m3 (Ambasa) and 26.15mg/m3 (Manu), it has now increased to
27.47mg/m3 in 2001 with a range between 17.87mg/m3 (Kamalpur) and 34.17mg/m3 (Manu).
Comparison of 24 hourly average concentration of NOx with National Ambient Air Quality
Standard (NAAQS) for residential area revealed that both are within the limit (80mg/m3).
The average SO2 concentration at Dhalai district was 8.77mg/m3 in 1997 with a range
between 5.91mg/m3 (Ambasa) and 11.79mg/m3 (Manu), it has now decreased to 4.37mg/m3
in 2001 with a range between 2.60mg/m3 (Manu) and 7.43mg/m3 (Kamalpur). Comparison of
24 hourly average concentration of SO2 with National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS)
for residential area revealed that both are within the limit (80mg/m3).
Lead (Pb)
Industrial Area and Commercial Area
Only two stations were located industrial areas, which was near to the residential areas out of
twenty-seven selected stations monitored during the present survey. An attempt has been
made to compare the industrial areas with the commercial area. It is seen that SPM and RPM
level as also NOx remain high in the commercial area while SO2 and lead show an increasing
concentration in industrial area with reference to the State level average the commercial area
exceed in terms of SPM, RPM and NOx (Table-106).
89
Table-106 : Air quality in the State of Tripura, Commercial & Industrial area
Parameter
State
Commercial Areas
Industrial Estate
SPM
171.81
177.74
97.69
RPM
68.86
70.17
52.47
NOx
67.62
69.23
47.53
SO2
4.73
4.66
5.55
Pb
0.39
0.37
0.62
State level Ambient Air Quality in Tripura during summer
An analysis of the available data show that concentration of SPM in the residential area comply
with NAAQS up to 77.7% while compliance level of RPM stands at 81.5%. The compliance level
for three other parameters namely NOx, SO2 and Pb stand at 74.07%, 100% and 100%
respectively. Among the four district of Tripura the North district appears to have the highest
pollution load and Dhalai district the lowest load during summer
15.2 Water Quality
15.2.1 Ground Water Quality
The ground water sampling were carried out at 19 stations distributed over four districts
(North :4, Dhalai :1, West :11 and South :3). A total of 30 parameters were analysed to study
physical characteristics, mineral constituents, toxic metals and induction of organic pollution.
A comparative study of results from 4 districts, for the major parameters of 19 samples show
that, TDS, TSS, Chloride, Fluoride, Sulphate remain within permissible limit; the same is
applicable for Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium and Chromium; BOD, COD, Oil and Grease, Phenolic
Compounds also remain within the prescribed limit. No faecal coliform was found in any
sample.The ground water quality indicate that it is suitable both for drinking and irrigation
purposes.
First available data set on water quality monitoring in the State dates back to OctoberNovember 1997 in 20 stations. The present study as already mentioned was carried out in 19
selected stations during March-June 2001. An attempt has been made to compare the past
data from the same location with the current data set.
Only four stations (3 in West Tripura and 1 in North Tripura) within the State are common in
the 1st and 2nd survey which have been compared to study the status of water quality at
different time level (Table-107).
Table-107 : Ground Water Quality data in 4 comparing stations
Parameters
Sampling Stations
Dukli (West)
Jirania (West)
Khowai (West)
Kumarghat (North)
1997
2001
1997
2001
1997
2001
1997
2001
Conductivity
433.0
110.0
303.0
160.0
128.0
202.0
128.0
152.0
TDS
282.0
80.0
197.0
120.0
83.0
128.0
83.2
115.0
PH
6.9
6.0
6.9
6.5
6.7
6.3
6.5
6.6
Hardness
78.72
40.0
78.72
64.0
51.72
92.0
53.20
76.0
Calcium
14.57
8.0
14.57
16.03
9.06
15.0
9.28
13.2
90
Magnesium
10.18
4.8
10.02
5.8
7.09
17.6
7.29
10.5
Alkalinity
56.52
56.0
115
90
31.80
105
36.70
85.0
Nitrate
1.09
0.015
32.26
0.012
0.55
0.015
0.88
0.02
Chloride
8.67
0.6
NA
11.3
2.92
8.5
3.10
11.3
Iron
0.17
0.37
0.21
0.26
0.06
0.21
0.02
0.29
Fluoride
BDL
<0.003
BDL
<0.003
BDL
<0.003
BDL
<0.003
[*= Data collected by TSPCB during the month of October-November, 1997]
[**= Data collected during present study in the month of May-June, 2001]
It is seen that Conductivity, TDS, pH, Hardness, Magnesium, Alkalinity Nitrate remain low in
Dukli and Jirania but Iron content is high in both these water samples compared to 1997
water samples. While in case of Khowai and Kumarghat Conductivity, TDS, pH, Hardness,
Calcium, Magnesium, Alkalinity, Iron, Chloride remain high compared to 1997 data set but the
Nitrate content appears low.
15.2.2 Surface Water
The surface water monitoring include 12 stations along 8 rivers, namely Howrah, Deo, Manu,
Dhalai, Juri, Feni, Khowai and Muhuri in four districts, besides two lakes viz: Amarsagar and
Jagannathdighi; effluent water sampling in three locations in the West District was carried out
in and around Agartala.
The River Water sample study shows TDS, TSS, Chloride, Fluoride, Sulphate, Calcium
Magnesium, Sodium Arsenic, Cadmium, Copper, and Lead etc. to be all within permissible
limit. Even indicators of organic pollutants, BOD value (except for river near Belionia) remain
within the limit; Dissolved oxygen level shows little higher value than permissible limit in Deo
at Kailashsahar and Howrah river station near forest office at Agartala. However, all the river
water samples appear highly polluted from bacteriological standard and coliform bacterial
loads including faecal coliform bacterial load exceed the tolerance limit. Of the river and stream
samples, oil and grease appear to be very high in Howrah and Chandrapur stream at
Chandrapur because of location of large number of automobile garages.
The pond water quality study shows that most of the parameters are within limit but
concentration of phenolic compounds and oil and grease are well above tolerance limit; this is
largely attributed to dumping of waste product. Bacteriological quality of pond water also
shows high level of total coliform and faecal coliform, making the water unsuitable for
potability (as was the case for surface water).
Effluent water sampling stations were located along engineering processing works, distilleries
and diaries. While most of the parameters conformed with the laid down standard, BOD value
appeared very high in case of industrial processing effluent and dairy effluent; the oil and
grease level remain just within stipulated limit in these two streams (Ramakrishna Engineering
Work, Agartala and Dairy unit in Indranagar Katakhal). Both these sampling stations also
show very high level of total coliform and faecal coliform bacterial load.
91
15.3 Noise Level Quality
Noise level was measured in four townships and semi-urban centers in North district
(Kailasahar, Kumarghat, Kanchanpur and Darmanagar), three centers in Dhalai district
(Manu, Amabassa, Kamalpur), six centers in West district (Agartala, Khowai, Bishalgarh,
Jirania, AD Nagar, Melaghar) and five centers in South district (Amarpur, Udaipur, Matabari,
Sabroom, Belonia).
Major noise level can be attributed to motor vehicles, industrial works, air-horn and
loudspeakers.
Ambient noise level was significantly higher in commercial, residential and industrial areas
(including silence zone) in the North district, Dhalai district, West district and South district in
Tripura.
Note: Details of sampling stations, parameters, district-wise data and analysis are given in the
form of a separate report to TSPCB for Air, Water, Noise quality studies conducted during pre
monsoon season, 2001.
15.4 Management of Hazardous Chemicals
About 1,00,000 chemicals are estimated to be in daily use in different applications for the
benefit of human society; and of these, approximately 7000 are produced commercially in large
quantities. Most of them have little or severe adverse effect on environment. Some of them are
fatal in respect of human and animal health as well as to natural environment. These effects
may be acute or chronic.
Thus, management of hazardous chemicals has become an important environmental and
public health issue and concern with the ever-growing evidence of the serious consequences of
indiscriminate disposal. The control and management of hazardous chemicals should draw a
high level of public interest and socio-economic and political forces must play a major role in
such efforts.
Most of the industrial units in Tripura are small scale in nature and most of them do not use
the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Therefore, inventorisation of hazardous chemicals can
only be done for medium scale industrial units.
15.4.1 Industrial sectors using hazardous chemicals
Following are the different industrial sectors storing and using hazardous chemicals in Tripura:






Gas gathering stations
Drug intermediate (Diosgene) producing unit
Latex processing unit
LPG bottling plant
Bottling plant of alcoholic beverages
Gas distribution pipelines
Gas gathering stations
At present, there are four installations of gas gathering stations set up by ONGC in Tripura. In
these gas gathering stations, natural gas from various drilling points in Tripura is collected,
purified and then stored for further distribution. The hazardous chemical here is the natural
gas itself. Table-108 gives the production capacity of natural gas in different installations.
92
Table –108 : Production capacity of different gas gathering stations in Tripura
Sl. No.
Location
Production
(in m3/day)
1
Konaban
5,00,000
2
Rukia
5,00,000
3
Agartala dome
5,00,000
Barmora
2,00,000
4
Capacity
[Source: Environment Division, National Productivity Council, 2001]
Diosgene producing unit
A Diosgene producing unit set up by Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation
(TFDPC) is functioning in the state. The existing production capacity of 1 MT/year is projected
to increase to 5 MT/year. The extraction from Dioscorea tubers and concentration process of
Diosgene production involve two hazardous chemicals, namely the Hexane (C6H14) and
Sulphuric acid (H2SO4). Hexane is stored within the unit (storage capacity is 12 kiloliter),
whereas, sulphuric acid is not stored but is procurred as per need. At the present production
capacity, the consumption rate of sulphuric acid is 9 MT/year; it is expected to increase to 45
MT/year with the projected capacity.
Latex processing unit
A large Latex processing unit has been set up by TFDPC at Takmachar. This unit tap and
process the rubber to produce latex concentrate and other by products. The hazardous
chemicals, which are used here for production of concentrate latex and different by products
are: Sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and Ammonia (NH3). The rate of consumption of above mentioned
chemicals are 250 MT/year and 45 MT/year respectively.
LPG bottling unit
The solitary LPG bottling plant in the state has been set up by the Indian Oil Corporation at
Bisalgarh of West district. The average inventory of LPG in this plant is 80 MT to 90 MT. While
the average production capacity of the bottling plant is 5,000 MT/year.
In view of the current storage capacity being limited to 80 to 90 MT, the facility does not fall
under the purview of Manufacture, Storage & Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, (as per the
schedule of 1998 & 2000, for an isolated storage, the minimum capacity should be 100 MT and
above). However, concidering the future prospect, it will be advisable to ensure compliance of
the extant rules.
Bottling plants of alcoholic beverages
At present there are two alcoholic beverage bottling plant situated (Gemini distillery at
Bodhjanagar and Varuni distillery at Kumarghat Industrial Estate) in Tripura. The hazardous
chemical used in these plants is Ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) itself. The storage capacity of the
above mentioned distilleries are 1800 liters and 1260 kiloliters respectively.
Gas distribution pipelines
The gas distribution pipelines in Tripura are installed by the Gas Authority of India Limited
(GAIL). The natural gas collected at different gas gathering stations is distributed to different
thermal power plants in Tripura through these pipelines. Keeping in mind the total storage
capacity of different gas gathering stations (17,00,00 m3/day), these distribution pipelines also
need to be attended as they convey the natural gas, which has the potential to cause hazard.
93
Further, GAIL is also laying pipelines for city gas supply to domestic consumers. No EIA has
been
carried out for the said project.
Chapter
17
WASTE MANAGEMENT
16.0 Solid Waste Management:
The state has no masterplan for solid waste management even in major urban centers
including the capital city of Agartala. According to the Agartala Municipal Council, about 90-95
metric tonnes of solid waste is generated per day. Of which approximately 50-60 metric tonnes
are collected through NGO collaboration and dumped in Haphama Dumping Ground in form of
sanitary land filling. In a recently held meeting (August 2001), Agartala Municipal Council has
proposed improvement of the same through additional deployment of dumper, dozar, payloader
and house to house collection, besides cleaning up of major roads and 10 markets, at a cost of
nearly Rs. 453.0 lakh. A local NGO has also proposed to undertake work for conversion of
organic wastes into compost, vermicomposting, pelletization etc. No final decision has been
taken.
16.1 Biomedical Waste:
Biomedical waste means any waste, which generated during diagnosis, treatment, and
immunization of human beings or animals or in research activities or in the production or
testing of biologicals. Waste generation in hospitals and their disposal has always been a
matter of concern to the medical profession.
Health care wastes are produced in hospitals, health centers, clinics, nursing homes,
pathological laboratories, research institutions, veterinary clinics, midwifery centers and other
medical cares conducted at home. The amount of wastes generated varies according to type of
facilities. The total quantum of biomedical waste can be categorized into:
1. Infectious and hazardous waste



Infectious sharp
Infectious non-sharp
Pathological
2. Non-Infectious and non-hazardous waste
Segregation of the first two categories of waste at source is the first and foremost step in waste
management. The infectious and hazardous waste mixed with the non-hazardous general ones
multiplies problem in handling at final disposal. Handling the sharps is extremely critical. It
calls for separate attention from other disposables in a waste management scheme.
Inventory of Health Care Establishments in Tripura:
Biomedical wastes are being generated from the following Health Care Establishments (HCEs)
in Tripura:



1. Government hospitals & dispensaries
2. Defense/Police hospitals
3. Private nursing homes
94





4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Pathological laboratories
Homoeopathic hospitals/dispensaries
Veterinary hospitals and dispensaries
Artificial Insemination Centers (AIC)
Disease investigation laboratories
The district wise inventory of Health Care Establishments (HCEs) in Tripura is given in Table109.
Table-109 : District wise inventory of Health Care Establishment in Tripura
Health Care Establishments
District name
Total
West South North Dhalai
Government hospitals & dispensaries
State hospitals
4
--
--
--
4
--
1
1
--
2
3
3
2
3
11
4
3
2
--
9
15
18
18
11
62
District hospitals
Sub-division hospitals
Rural hospitals
Primary Health Centers
West South North Dhalai
Subtotal
26
25
23
14
88
1
--
--
--
1
1
--
--
--
1
Police hospitals
1
--
--
--
1
Dispensaries of Army, Assam Rifles, TSR, CRPF, BSF
28
7
5
3
43
Subtotal
31
7
5
3
46
Private nursing homes
10
--
--
--
10
Pathological laboratories
36
26
15
11
88
1
--
--
--
1
2
16
4
3
49
69
5
2
2
18
Defense/Police hospitals
BSF hospitals
Army hospitals
Homoeopathic hospitals/dispensaries
State hospitals
Dispensaries
Sub centers
95
Subtotal
36
21
6
5
68
Veterinary hospitals
3
3
2
2
10
Veterinary dispensaries
20
17
10
6
53
93
58
43
25
219
4
5
2
1
12
Disease investigation laboratories
1
1
1
--
3
Animal stock where AI is done
50
26
23
9
108
Proposed vaccine production center (for the year 2001)
1
--
--
--
1
Subtotal
172
110
81
43
406
Animal Health Care Establishments
Veterinary sub centers
Artificial Insemination Centers (AIC)
Grand total
707
[Source: Directorate of Health, Govt. Of Tripura, 2001]
The treatment capacity of different Health Care Establishments in Tripura:
The total bed capacity in different Health Care Establishments in Tripura is given in Table 110.
Table –110 : Bed capacity of different Health Care Establishments in Tripura
Health Care Establishments
Number
Bed capacity
Total
West
South
North
Dhalai
State hospitals
4
1054
--
--
--
1054
District hospitals
2
--
150
150
--
300
Sub-division hospitals
11
205
150
60
100
515
Rural hospitals
9
120
80
60
--
260
Defense/Police hospitals
3
87
--
--
--
87
Homoeopathic hospitals
1
20
--
--
--
20
Private nursing homes
10
130
--
--
--
130
Total
2366
In case of animal health care, as per Directorate of Animal Resource & Development, following
statistical figures (Table-111) are reported in all over Tripura:
96
Table –111 : Statistical figure for animal health care
Total case treated (avg.)
1,26,497 per year
27,483 per month
Total vaccination (FMD) given
86,844 for progressive period
33,405 per month
Vaccination other than FMD
Total Artificial Insemination done
Quantification of biomedical waste in Tripura:
Based on the waste audit carried out in representative hospitals, nursing homes, pathological
laboratories and using specific waste generation factor evolved from them, the total quantum of
solid biomedical waste (which includes organic waste) generated in Tripura is found to be
1573.2 Kg/day. In addition, 136 m3 of wastewater per day is generated from them. Out of this
the quantity of organic waste is about 810 Kg/day. Table 4 gives the quantity of waste
generated in different Health Care Establishments. This study is based on a recent report
submitted by National Productivity Council, New Delhi to the State Pollution Control Board,
Tripura.
Table 112: Total quantity of biomedical waste generated from different Health Care
Establishments in Tripura
Waste
Quantity in Kg/day
categories State Distri Sub- Rural Prim
hospit ct
divisi hospit ary
als
hospit on
als
Healt
als
hospit
h
als
Cent
er
Nursi
ng
hom
es
Patholo Homoeop Defense/P Tota
gical
athic
olice
l
laborato hospitals hospitals
ries
Human
19.3
anatomical
waste,
blood
&
body parts
--
--
--
--
2.5
--
--
--
21.8
Microbiolo 2.1
gical
&
biotechnol
ogical
waste
0.3
--
--
--
--
2
--
--
4.4
Waste
scraps
3.6
4
Neg
Neg
Neg
7
10
--
2.3
26.9
Discarded
medicines
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
24
5
3.2
4.1
10
20
38.5
27.9
312.
7
Solid wastes 180
(generated
from soiled
cotton,
97
Waste
Quantity in Kg/day
categories State Distri Sub- Rural Prim
hospit ct
divisi hospit ary
als
hospit on
als
Healt
als
hospit
h
als
Cent
er
Nursi
ng
hom
es
Patholo Homoeop Defense/P Tota
gical
athic
olice
l
laborato hospitals hospitals
ries
dressings,
plaster
castes,
lines,
beddings,
materials
contaminate
d with blood
including
the
packaging
materials)
Disposables 115.7
generated
from
disposable
items other
than
the
waste
scraps
50
54
26.3
42.6
25.5
30
--
12.3
356.
4
Chemical
wastes
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
77
128
63
101.5 30
Neg
--
41.5
851
92.5
148.2 75
62
38.5
84
157
3.2
5
8
20
--
5
136
--
Organic
410
waste
and
paper
contaminate
d with other
biomedical
waste
Total
730.7 155.3 187
Liquid
66
waste
generated
from
laboratory
and
washing,
cleaning,
housekeepi
ng
and
disinfecting
activities (in
m3/day)
16
11
5
From Animal Health Care Centers, the total quantum of biomedical waste generated is
298709.3 Kg/year and about 7800 m3/year of liquid waste is generated from the same, as
shown in Table 113.
98
Table –113 : Total quantity of biomedical waste generated from different Animal Health
Care Centers in Tripura
Waste
Quantity in Kg/year
Veterinar Veterinary Veterinar Artificial
Disease
y
dispensarie y
sub- Inseminatio Investigatio
hospitals s
centers
n Centers
n
Laboratorie
s
Anima Total
l
stock
where
AI is
done
Animal
& 756
slaughter
house wastes
(generated by
veterinary
hospitals,
colleges,
animal house
and livestock
farms)
--
--
--
9000
--
9756
Microbiologica -l
&
biotechnologic
al waste
--
--
--
10
--
10
Waste scraps
21
27
57.8
--
--
--
105.8
Discarded
medicines
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
Solid
wastes 1890
(generated
from
soiled
cotton,
dressings,
plaster castes,
lines,
beddings,
materials
contaminated
with
blood
including the
packaging
materials)
500
11550
--
--
--
13940
Disposables
756
generated
from
disposable
items
other
than the waste
scraps
445
4735.5
--
122
--
6058.5
Chemical
wastes
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
99
Waste
Total
Quantity in Kg/year
Veterinar Veterinary Veterinar Artificial
Disease
y
dispensarie y
sub- Inseminatio Investigatio
hospitals s
centers
n Centers
n
Laboratorie
s
Anima Total
l
stock
where
AI is
done
3423
Liquid waste -generated
from
laboratory and
washing,
cleaning,
housekeeping
and
disinfecting
activities
(in
m3/day)
972
16343.3
--
9132
--
29870.
3
--
--
2400
--
5400
7800
On the basis of the above data, the quantity of biomedical waste expected to be generated per
bed, per day in the Health Care Establishments in Tripura, has been calculated and is shown
in (Table –114).
Currently, there is no appropriate system for disposal of biomedical waste. Joint meetings with
CPCB, TSPCB, local authorities, Urban Development Department, Health Department and
nursing homes have already been organized. Member Secretary, TSPCB as the Prescribed
Authority and has constituted an Advisory Committee in the State under Biomedical Waste
Rule. For effective implementation of the rules, TSPCB is closely interacting with AMC, nursing
homes and Health Department. According to TSPCB, an action plan for inventorisation of
hospital waste and for setting up of facilities for proper disposal of biomedical waste has been
taken.
16.2 Hazardous Waste Management
A large variety of synthetic chemicals are used daily for different application for the benefit of
human society. Chemicals like petroleum fuels, antibiotics and other drugs, plastics, food
preservatives, agricultural fertilizers, pesticides etc. are entangled with our life. About 1,00,000
chemicals are estimated to be in daily use and of these, approximately 7000 are produced
commercially in large quantities. Most of them have little or severe adverse effect on
environment. Some of them are fatal in respect of human and animal health as well as to
natural environment. These effects may be acute or chronic i.e. they become visible after short
exposure or may be visualized after wide and prolonged usage.
Hazardous wastes management has become an important environmental and public health
issue and concern with the ever-growing evidence of the serious consequences of
indiscriminate disposal. The control and management of hazardous waste should draw a high
level of public interest and socio-economic and political forces must play a major role in the
control of environmental hazards.
100
The Government of India has notified necessary rules for handling and management of
hazardous waste in 1989, amended in 2000. However, the handling and management of lead
acid batteries has to be governed by the Batteries (Management & Handling) Rules, 2000.
Inventorisation of hazardous waste generation in Tripura
Due to lack of infrastructure and communication, Tripura is still an industrially backward
state. The main livelihood of this state is agriculture. Most of the production units in Tripura
are small-scale in nature and most of them do not available the Material Safety Data Sheet
(MSDS). Therefore, inventorisation of hazardous waste for this state can only be done on the
basis of medium-scale and large-scale industrial units. Based on the available information an
inventory of hazardous waste generating units has been prepared by the National Productivity
Council in 2001.
Estimation of Industries
As per the Directorate of Industries, Government of Tripura, there are four medium-scale
projects are recorded presently:




Bowry Plywood (North Tripura)
Neramac Fruit Juice Concentrate Plant (North Tripura)
Tea Factories (West Tripura)
Jute Mills (West Tripura)
Apart from this, there are two large thermal power plants are now start operation. They are:


1. Barmora Gas Thermal Project
2. Rukia Gas Thermal Project
The Directorate of Industries, Government of Tripura recorded the presence of about 4724
small-scale registered industrial units in the state. According to 1999-updated information,
there are about 2837 small-scale units located in the state. However, no information is
available with any organizations/agencies about the actual number of operating industrial
units in Tripura.
Industrial Authorities
In respect to industries existing in Tripura, the following departments and industrial
associations are involved:








Directorate of Industries, Government of Tripura
Factories and Boilers Organization
Tripura Industrial Development Corporation Ltd.
Tripura Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Federation of Association of Cottage and Small Industries (FACSI), Tripura
Directorate of Handloom and Handicrafts, Government of Tripura
Tripura Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd.
Rubber Board, Government of India
101
Location of the Industrial Estates
Most of the small-scale units are randomly located. They are either located on roadside or in
the thickly populated residential and commercial places. Rests of the industries are located in
five designated industrial estates namely:





Arundhutinagar Industrial Estates
Badarghat Industrial Estates
Dhajanagar Industrial Estates
Kumarghat Industrial Estates
Dharmanagar Industrial Estates
Hazardous Waste Generating Sectors
Based on product manufactured and industrial process used, the following sectors have been
identified as hazardous waste generating sectors conforming to Schedule I and II of Hazardous
Waste (Management & Handling) Amendment Rule, 2000:










Drug intermediate (Diosgene) producing units
Pharmaceuticals
Latex producing units
Lead acid batteries reconditioning
Printing press
Photo printing
Leather tanning
Textile and handloom dying and printing
Aluminium product with melting facility
Timber processing
11. Repairing and servicing of automobiles
Industrial sector & district wise distribution of Hazardous Waste Generating Units
(HWGUs)
Based on the information available with Tripura State pollution Control Board (TSPCB), NPC’s
past experience, discussion with various departments, industrial associations, industrial units
and during field visits inventory of Hazardous Waste Generating Units (HWGUs) located in four
districts of Tripura has been prepared. The district and sector wise distribution of hazardous
waste generating units is given in Table-115.
Quantification of hazardous waste in Tripura
The quantum of hazardous wastes generated by different industrial units in the districts and
industrial sectors of Tripura is given in Table-116.
Highest quantum of hazardous waste i.e. 88,000 m3/year is generated from processing of
latex, which is highly bio-degradable and having the potential of CH4 gas generation provided
latex processing is in organized way. Out of total 88,000 m3/year, 67 % is generated from West
district only and balance 33 % is spread in remaining three districts.
102
About 0.8 MT/year of waste developing and fixer residue is generated from photo printing units
in Tripura which is a smaller quantity. This is at present being drained to the municipal
drains. However some units claim that they generally collect them in a drain and then send
them to Assam for recovery of silver from it.
About 240 MT of spent acid is being generated per year from lead acid battery reconditioning
process which is presently being discharged into municipal drains from all the small shops of
battery reconditioning spread all over Tripura. The waste has to be neutralized and the lead
has to be removed before discharge. In addition approximately 1200 MT of lead scrap is
generated which is presently being sold out to traders for reclamation of lead outside Tripura.
About 198 MT of oil containing sludge and about 13.2 MT of cloth contaminated with oil are
being generated per year from repairing & servicing of automobile The oil containing sludge is
presently being sold out while cloth contaminated will oil is being burnt. The small shops for
repairing of automobiles are spread all over the Tripura.
There are cluster of textile & handloom weaving units spread in West district of Tripura.
However, dyeing of cotton yarns & printing of textile (bed sheets) is been carried out in cooperative societies only. The azo- dyes are being used for dyeing and printing. The wastewater
containing spent dyes is being discharged into ground water without any treatment through
digging the wells right up to aquifer. However, it is estimated that after installation of Effluent
Treatment Plant (ETP) about 4.3 MT of sludge containing dyes will be generated per year at
existing capacity of dyeing & printing.
There is only one tannery unit in West district of Tripura, which is not having any wastewater
treatment plant. However, it is estimated that after installation of Effluent Treatment Plant
(ETP), about 159 MT of sludge containing chromium will be generated per year at existing
capacity of tanning i.e. 20,000 skins per month. Remaining hazardous wastes are in very small
quantity.
In summary, it is apparent that at present no proper systems of hazardous waste management
exist in the state of Tripura. However, it is expected that an appropriate management
programme will be initiated by the Government of Tripura, based on the finding and
recommendations of National Productivity Council, New Delhi.
Table -114 : Quantity of biomedical waste generated per bed per day from different
Health Care Establishments in Tripura
Waste
categories
Quantity in Kg/bed/day
State
Dis SubRural
hospita tri divisio hospita
ls
ct n
ls
ho hospita
spi ls
tal
s
Nursi Homoeopat Defense/Polic Total
ng
hic
e hospitals
home hospitals
s
Human
anatomical
waste, blood
0.018
0.019
--
--
--
--
--
0.037
&
103
body parts
Microbiological & 0.002
biotechnological
waste
0.0 -01
--
--
--
--
0.003
Waste scraps
0.003
0.0 Neg
13
Neg
0.053
--
0.026
0.095
Discarded
medicines
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
--
Solid
wastes 0.17
(generated from
soiled
cotton,
dressings,
plaster
castes,
lines, beddings,
materials
contaminated
with
blood
including
the
packaging
materials)
0.0 0.009
8
0.012
0.076
1.925
0.321
2.593
Disposables
0.109
generated
from
disposable items
other than the
waste scraps
0.1 0.105
67
0.101
0.196
--
0.141
0.819
Chemical wastes --
--
--
--
--
--
--
Organic
waste 0.389
and
paper
contaminated
with
other
biomedical waste
0.2 0.248
57
0.242
0.231
--
0.477
1.844
Total
0.691
0.5 0.362
18
0.355
0.575
1.925
0.965
5.391
Liquid
waste 0.062
generated
from
laboratory
and
washing,
cleaning,
housekeeping
and disinfecting
activities
(in
m3/bed/day)
0.0 0.021
53
0.019
0.038
--
0.057
0.25
--
104
Table-115 : Industrial sector & district wise distribution of Hazardous Waste Generating
Units (HWGUs) in Tripura
Industrial Sectors
Districts of Tripura State
Total
Waste Type
no.
of
units
West
South North Dhalai
Tripura Tripura Tripura
Drug
intermediate 1
(Diosgene)
producing
units
--
--
--
1
Different process recidues
Pharmaceuticals
5
--
--
--
5
Different process recidues
Latex producing units
12
7
8
4
31
Non-emulsified
latex
residue & wastewater
Lead acid batteries 60
reconditioning
25
10
5
100
Spent H2SO4, exhauted
lead plates with PVC
seperators
Small printing press
14
13
6
93
Paper cloth containing
printing ink residue, Lead
letters
--
--
--
1
same as above
Government
press
60
printing 1
Newsprint
printing)
(Letter 29
--
--
--
29
same as above
Newspaper
(offset)
print 9
--
--
--
9
same as above
Photo printing
15
10
5
5
40
Different photochemicals
Leather tanning
1
--
--
--
1
ETP sludge contaminated
with Chromium
Textile and handloom 7
dying and printing
--
--
--
7
ETP
sludge
from
wastewater treatment
Aluminium
product 2
with melting facility
--
--
--
2
Aluminium slag
Timber processing
--
--
--
1
Spent wood preservatives
19
33
10
142
Spent oil, oil emulsion,
cloths contaminated with
oil
Total
462
1
Repairing and servicing 80
of automobiles
[Source: Environment div. National Productivity Council, 2001]
105
Table-116 : District and sector wise quantification of hazardous waste generation in
Tripura
Industrial sector
Waste type
Quantity in MT/year
West
South
North
Dhalai
Total
144
60
24
12
240
720
300
120
60
1200
Paper
cloth 9
containing printing
ink residue
2
1
0.9
14.1
Lead letter
0.42
0.09
0.09
0.04
0.06
Developer residue
0.5
--
--
--
0.5
Fixer residue
0.5
--
--
--
0.5
Developer residue
0.18
0.12
0.06
0.06
0.42
Fixer residue
0.18
0.12
0.06
0.06
0.42
--
--
--
159
--
--
--
4.3
Lead acid battery Spent acid
reconditioning
Lead scrape
Printing press
Newspaper print
Photo printing
Leather tanning
ETP
sludge 159
contaminated with
chromium
Textile
and ETP sludge
handloom dying
wastewater
treatment
from 4.3
Aluminium product Alumunium sludge
with melting facility
18
--
--
--
18
Pharmaceuticals
0.04
--
--
--
0.04
Use and production Latex
emulsion 52800
of latex
residue (wastewater) m3/year
13200
m3/year
13200
m3/year
8800
m3/year
88000
m3/year
Timber treatment
--
--
--
0.024
--
--
--
0.05
26
46
14
198
1.7
3
0.9
13.2
Process residue
Residue from the 0.024
use of the wood
preservatives
Drugs intermediate Distillation residue
production
Repairing
servicing
automobiles
0.05
and Oil
containing 112
of sludge
and
oil
emulsion
Cloths
contaminated
oil
7.4
with
[Source: Environment div. National Productivity Council, 2001]
106
Chapter
18
CURRENT EFFORTS
The State of Tripura with locational constraints and limited resources has shown serious
concern about environment - management in the region.The Environment Department however
remains small with the majority of the work being carried out by the State Pollution Control
Board.
Zoning Atlas and Regional Plan :
Tripura is the first state in India to have prepared a 'Zoning of Atlas', (2000) providing detailed
information on the suitable locations for future industrial development. The document has
provided for the first time Reference Map, Sensitive - Zone map. This has been followed by
Regional Plan for Tripura with a futuristic projection up to 2021 AD. Based on the
performances of the State Government, specially Tripura State Pollution Control Board. Tripura
has been selected as one of the four states in India for setting up Control of Excellence dealing
with Environmental Planning. To support the venture Ministry of Environment and Forest and
Central Pollution Control will provide full infrastructure and Manpower support.
Pollution Monitoring
The State Board has introduced a programme for periodic monitoring of surface water (lakes
and rivers) and ground water (shallow and deep tube well). Under MINRAS programme
continuous monitoring of two surface water and two selected ground water status are being
carried out; a proposal for covering 7 additional stations has been sent to CPCB. Air quality
monitoring is also being periodically at selected sites. Auto-emission testing however show a
declining number of vehicles (between 1992-93 and 1996 97) being tested; after 1996-97 till
2000 -2001, no testing was done. While noise level monitoring has also been done periodically,
the regulatory mechanism appears weak.
Consent Management
As a part of regulatory mechanism industrial works require prior consent for operation from
TSPCB. The available data shows that till March 2001, as many as 1986 number of consent
letters have been Issued (Starting from 1988-89) which include letter to establish new units
(1238) and Renewal of Consent (748).
Public Grievance Cell
TSPCB has establish a mechanism to receive public complaints and take necessary action after
inspection. The available figure of 1999 - 2000 renewal that more than 80% complaints have
been attended to.
Environment Awareness
The Tripura State Pollution Control Board is acting as the Regional Resource Agency for
Conducting and monitoring National Environment Awareness Programme (NEAC) motivating
NGOs, Educational Institutions, Panchayates and other organisations. Besides NEAC
programme by observing World Environment Day and other annual programmes.
107
New Projects :
The State Government has taken initiatives in the 3 new Panchayats connected with



(a) Solid Waste Management : In Agartala Municipality Area , in collaboration with
local NGO's and technically qualified firms .The organic compost is likely to be used by
Tea Gardens .
(b) Hazardous Waste Management : A report has been proposed with inventory of
Hazardous Waste in collaboration with the National Productivity Council (NPC) . An
action plan is being prepared for safe disposal.
(c) Bio-Medical Waste Management : To comply with GOI rules, an advisory
Committee has been formed and meetings held with local authorities, urban
development department, Health Departments and stake holders .
State of Environment
The State has embarked upon preparation of a 'State of Environment Report' 2001 covering
every major sectors in all the four districts of Tripura . Primary data have been generated at 25
sampling stations for Air Quality, surface water and ground water quality and Noise level. This
is the second SOE Report the first being published in 1989.
Capital City Environment Assessment
A new initiative has been taken to prepare a Capital City Report on Environmental status
specially for Pollution Level, Waste Management etc., with support from CPCB.
Lake Study
Tripura is well known for beautiful lakes TSPCB has initiated a study of four major lakes of
Tripura. The study is aimed at finding water quality and suggesting appropriate management
strategy.
108
Chapter
19
RECOMMENDATIONS
1.0 Land and Soil

Land Use
Urban Land Use Plans in the State suffers from lack of appropriate land use map, showing
contour line. It is therefore recommended that:
· Topographical map showing contour lines be prepared for the capital city of Agartala and all
district headquarters, followed by zoning system.
· All drainage schemes may be based on such topographical maps to utilize natural gradient
and to avoid periodic flooding due to faulty, sectoral planning.
· The Town and Country Planning Department may either entrust the work to the Geological
Survey of India, Tripura State Centre or to National Atlas and Thematic Mapping
Organization with head quarters at Calcutta.
· The State lacks a Wetland Policy, which has led to conversion of prime wetlands for nonwetland purposes. It is therefore recommended to ban all conversion of wetlands of the size
of five cottah or above, (man-made or natural), which are useful for drainage, ground water
recharging, pisciculture, fire fighting, microclimate – stability, bathing and other purposes.

Soil Conservation
The limitation of current land use for productive agriculture is reflected in medium to
severe erosion of land largely attributed to water and shifting cultivation. Soil conservation
programme in the State should be focussed on:
·
Major thrust should be given for effective implementation of Watershed Development
project in Shifting Cultivation Area. Available data shows that by end of 2001 only 50% of
targeted area have been covered, with completion date being fixed at 31 March 2002.
·
More Strategic planning and timely release of fund along with a monitoring system for
progress in field based work is essential for soil conservation.
·
A cartographic support system is recommended for effective planning to conserve the vital
resources, including use of Remote Sensing data.
·
Soil conservation in upper catchment area is urgently needed.
2.0 Forests
The report of the State Forest Department reveal-alarming rise of incidence of unauthorized
felling in State forest. The other disturbing issue relates to encroachment into forestland.
Besides, at least in 20% of forest are affected by forest fire and nearly 1.2 million cattle use
109
forest for grazing. In order to prevent serious loss of forest resource, the following
recommendations are made:
·
To implement effective forest protection measure, more extensive Joint Forest management
(JFM) strategy should be adopted with a notion of benefit sharing.
Special task force should be created to stop forest produces being smuggled to Bangladesh.
·
Effective communication system should be established to detect and prevent forest fire.
Forest department personnel should be provided with fire fighting training and equipment.
In areas managed by JFM, members of forest protection committees should be given
incentives to combat forest fire.
·
A plan to gradually sterilize unproductive cattle and introduce better breed with lesser
number of cattle head should be initiated by Animal Husbandry Department in
collaboration with Forest Department to control grazing in forest land.
3.0 Biodiversity
The State level Biodiversity assessment shows rich assemblage of species with significant
genetic diversity in agricultural crops including paddy. The action plan for conservation of
biodiversity should focus on:
·
Habitat Conservation of rare and endangered flora.
·
Systematic development of medicinal plant garden in each of four districts of Tripura.
·
On farm conservation of major rice varieties in Government Agricultural Farms, in
collaboration with Regional ICAR centre, to propagate indigenous rice varieties through
selective breeding: Millet, Maize, Sesame, Pulses of indigenous varieties should also be
conserved through on farm programme.
·
Of the vegetable and fibre crops, genetic diversity in brinjal, chillies, cucurbits, sweet
potatoes, plants of Aracaceae, Diascoraceae, cotton, jute and mesta should be equally
conserved through a master plan of State Government, specially in State Agricultural
Farms.
·
Habitat of identified Rare, Endangered and Vulnerable species of fishes should be protected
along with a ban on catching such species (identified by Zoological Survey of India) through
State level law.
·
Legal measures to notify all the four sanctuaries (covering 6% of the geographical area)
should be completed as required U/S 26(A) of Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972, for
effective management.
110
4.0 Agriculture
Considering extensive use of High Yielding Varieties and trend of homogenizing agriculture,
promotion of indigenous varieties of crops through seed bank is deemed essential. It is
recommended that:
·
A new “seed policy” to collect and preserve seeds of major indigenous varieties of crops is
called for. The method of on-farm conservation and setting up of regional seed bank should
be given priority. Deputy Director in-charge of Seed related issues in the State Agriculture
Department may be entrusted to draw a plan with appropriate financial support for
implementation during 10th Five Year Plan onward.
·
In view of lack of reliable data on use of pesticides sold through private enterprises, the
State Agriculture Department should make it mandatory for such dealers to file annual
returns. Such returns may provide data both on quantity and quality of pesticides used in
the State and help to monitor extent of use of banned pesticides or undesirable persistant
organic pollutant (POP’S).
·
Fisheries potential of the State needs an in depth study, both in terms of Capture and
Culture fisheries, along with identification of more potential fishing areas, identification of
inland fisheries development zone and expansion of co-operative fisheries societies
movement.
5.0 Energy
In view of increasing awareness about value of genetic resources for sustainable development,
the promotion of Hydel power project (which often leads to submergence of prime forest) should
be gradually shifted to other energy sources. It is recommended that:
· Major power generation be based on gas fired power plant, increasing the current level of
78% to at least 90% and above. The potential of use of natural gas fired plant in the field of
generation of electricity being well established a time bound master plan is essential.
· Stand-alone, wood based biomass, Gasifier Power Plant should be extensively promoted in
remote areas. Such project can be linked up with participatory energy plantation, for units
up to 500 KW.
· A strict monitoring for implementation of other projects involving renewable energy is
recommended to ensure targeted achievement.
6.0 Transport
In view of the land locked condition of the State and severe constraints in transport sector,
more transport facilities are needed. But keeping in view the environmental impact, following
recommendations are made:
111
· No Railway Project through prime forest and land-slip prone zone should be allowed without
a detailed Environment Impact Assessment study and Environment Management Plan.
· Whenever other alternative route can be utilized, State Government should insist of
realigning project in order to save ecologically fragile zone.
· A detailed feasibility study for development of intra state road communication, along with EIA
and EMP, should be undertaken; in view of only 20% of present road network being black
topped, steps should be taken to convert the road -network into an all weather category.
· An extensive infrastructure development project starting with road network may help to boost
the economy by enabling biological produces to reach major markets in shortest possible
time.
7.0 Tourism
In view of thrust on several tourism development projects in future, following recommendations
are made:
· Tourism Development Master Plan should focus on the Eco tourism concept, especially in
Forest, Lakes and Cultural Heritage Sites.
· Group tourism should be promoted with adequate infrastructure support. All tourist spots
authority should have a plan for proper disposal of solid waste and wastewater. A carefully
drawn location-specific plan is essential to achieve such objectives.
· Private investment in Tourism sector may be encouraged but it should be within the ambit of
Principles of Eco tourism.
8.0 People
The population profile of Tripura shows a total of 19 tribal groups, who were provided needed
support since 5th Five-Year Plan (before 1980). However, considering the dependency of these
“ecosystem people” on Natural Resources, the following recommendations are made:
· Detailed information on investment for Agriculture, Health, Nutrition, Education, Soil
Conservation, Rehabilitation of Jhumia, Development of Handicraft etc. along with year wise
achievement figures, may be generated. This is to assess the impact of investment on
Indigenous Peoples’ development and expected decline on dependency on Natural Resources.
· In view of Population-Poverty-Pollution linkages, programmes of poverty alleviation need to be
critically assessed and implemented with a rigor.
9.0 Health
In view of the lack of adequate data on Public Health, the following recommendations are
made:
· All Private clinics and Nursing Homes may be made to submit an annual return of patients
admitted, categories of diseases, treated including communicable diseases, in a given format.
112
Such data can be combined with the data from Government Health Centre / Hospitals by
Health Statistical Unit of State Health Department.
· Data on occupational health hazards being lacking, a system of collecting and collating such
data on an annual basis should be implemented in collaboration with Industries and Labour
Departments.
· Prevention of water borne diseases is recommended by improvement of drinking water
quality. A wide spread mass education and awareness programme offering cheapest method
of household level drinking water treatment is essential, to ensure potability of water.
· The current figures for Doctors / Nurses / Midwives per 1000 population appear alarmingly
low. Incentives to undertake such work from personnel of other state (Doctors) and extensive
training and employment for Nurses and Midwives are considered vital for Health Care
System in the State. Special funding support for improvement of Health Care System from
the World Bank / Asian Development Bank may be sought as a part of Environment
Improvement Programme for Sustainable Development.
10.0 Habitat
· The ambitious plan for Integrated Development of small and medium town need to be based
on appropriate land use map. Use of Remote Sensing data for proper planning is also
recommended.
· The Capital City development scheme also suffers from proper land use map, which is
urgently needed. A realistic estimate of sector wise percentage of area occupied (Residential,
Commercial, Institutional, Recreational, Road etc.) as on the end of 20 th Century is also
lacking, but urgently needed.
· All drainage scheme and road improvement programme should be based on contour maps
only.
11.0 Environmental Quality
While environmental quality in the State appears largely within permissible limits, steps are to
be taken with regard to the specific areas mentioned bellow:
· The air quality level during Summer shows higher concentration of SPM, RPM and NOx in
20% –25% of sampling sites. Regular monitoring of automobile emission and industrial
emissions are to be made, especially in the Capital Township area.
· River Water quality appears to contain bacterial load much above the permissible limit. The
pollution can only be checked by providing adequate sanitation facilities in the human
settlements along the river - course, to prevent pollution at source. Village level awareness
campaign can be launched through educational institutional network by TSPCB.
· A dangerous level of phenolic compound and oil and grease in the pond water in Capital City
calls for strict vigilance over the units discharging such material, violating existing laws. A
"Polluters Pay" principle should be adopted to clean up selected ponds and punitive action
against polluting units are to be taken.
113
· Identified Industrial Units (eg. Ramakrishna Engineering Works, Agartala, Dairy Unit at
Indranagar) should be cautioned against discharge of effluent contributing to high level of
BOD and fecal and total coliform bacteria. If not heeded, appropriate legal steps should be
taken according to extant law.
· The State Government should take steps to keep the members of the community aware about
ill effects of high noise - level on human physiology including hearing capacity. This should
be followed by taking stringent steps to control noise pollution at source by adopting laid
down legal provisions of Government of India.
· Considering the provision under notification issued for Management of Hazardous Chemicals,
a special advisory and monitoring committee may be constituted to oversee implementation
of the law in six identified areas in the State of Tripura, viz., Gas gathering station, Drug
intermediaries, Unit Latex producing units, LPG bottling plants, Bottling plants for alcoholic
beverages and Gas distributions pipelines.
· Solid Waste Management system lack adequate infrastructural support and steps should be
taken to draw a master plan for the Capital City and the district head quarters for proper
quantification, segregation and disposal. Involvement of consultant and local NGO’s is
recommended.
· Currently no appropriate system exists for disposal of biomedical waste (29870 kg / year).
Steps should be taken to strictly follow GOI notification on handling, quantification,
segregation and disposal of biomedical waste as per stipulated guidelines. Involvement of
consultants and local level NGO's may be most useful to implement the process.
· While an inventory of hazardous waste has recently been prepared for the state, no effective
plan for handling and disposal exist till date. The State Government could appoint an expert
committee under TSPCB to monitor and implement the scheme for appropriate disposal of
hazardous waste following GOI guidelines.
12.0 Environmental Education
· In view of lack of any concerted effort to introduce component of environmental education at
primary, secondary and higher secondary level, it is recommended to organize training
programmes for selected teachers from each of the districts from all the three streams; this
should be followed by preparation of appropriate text and work-study programme, which
could be followed by the trained teachers. The entire programme may be implemented with
assistance from consultants, preferably using local language for preparation of Text, Manuals
and training of teachers.
114

State of Environment Report - Tripura 2002

Transcription

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